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Josie Tomkow Discovers Homeowner Rights
Josie Tomkow says she wants to create a Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights and make sure insurance claims are fully paid. This sounds reassuring, especially in a state where rising premiums and storm losses have made things tough for homeowners. There is just one awkward detail: Florida already has a Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights. Even more, Tomkow spent years voting for laws that made it harder and more expensive for policyholders to challenge insurers when claims were denied or underpaid.
Campaign records also show ongoing support for Tomkow from insurance companies, industry groups, civil-justice organizations, and a former Florida Insurance Commissioner who now works in insurance advisory.
So is this a real change of heart, or just a shift for campaign season? Her voting record, contribution history, and new promises make it worth taking a closer look.
Politics
All the hot-button topics about government, state, local, and federal the courts, and the election.
Some Things Should Not Be Run for Profit
What if the biggest mistake in Florida’s education debate is assuming schools should work like ordinary businesses?
Markets reward efficiency, control costs, and give consumers choices. Public education has a different job. It has to serve every child, including the student who needs far more support, the student who needs advanced opportunities, and the student whose family could never afford to buy those services on its own.
That is why I think the debate over vouchers and school choice has to go deeper than whether competition can improve some outcomes. The real question is whether K-12 education should be organized around market incentives at all.
In this essay, I look at what happens when we confuse efficiency with public duty, and why some things may work better when the goal is not profit, but making sure everyone is served.
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 Is the Money For?
A single mother stops at a traffic light and hands five dollars to a homeless person. Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion to fight climate change. Bezos will accomplish far more with his gift. Yet the mother may have given up something she needed.
That distinction sits at the heart of my latest essay. The world’s richest people possess more money than they could spend across several lifetimes. Their fortunes keep growing while the planet warms, public institutions weaken, and millions struggle to survive. Their philanthropy does useful work, though it rarely costs them any comfort or power.
So what is all the remaining money for? The answer takes us through the Gilded Age, the widow’s offering, other religious traditions, private bunkers, life extension, and the strange belief that enough wealth can free someone from the fate shared by every human being.
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.
What We Owe the Worker
People often see Labor Day as just the end of summer, but its history asks us to remember something more. The day began with workers fighting for safer workplaces, better pay, reasonable hours, and the right to organize. Those fights were never only about economics. They were about dignity.
The Stoics didn’t write about labor rights as we know them, but they believed strongly in justice, cooperation, and the common good. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself that people are meant to work together, and that harm to the community eventually harms everyone. This idea matters now, when many workers still have little control over their pay, safety, schedules, or ability to organize.
This Labor Day, let’s consider what Stoicism can still teach us about work, the value of workers, and what we owe each other in a society that says it honors labor.
Trump Wants the Midterms to Be About Trump
Donald Trump has looked at a 34 percent approval rating and reached a comforting conclusion: Americans have not seen enough Donald Trump. His super PAC is preparing midterm ads built around his record, his speeches, and clips of Trump praising Trump. Apparently, the nation has suffered from a shortage.
The ads will tout stock-market highs, factory output, falling overdose deaths, and other signs of the “Golden Age.” Families will still see grocery bills that keep climbing, gasoline near $4.09 a gallon, and a job market that lost ground in July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has yet to buy anyone’s groceries.
Trump wants voters to treat the midterms as though his name appears on every ballot. They should accept the invitation. Then they should ask every Republican incumbent whether Trump’s record belongs to them too, which votes lowered costs back home, and why the greatest economy in history remains so difficult for most people to find.
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.
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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.
