Every day for a week the Times Opinion page has been showing photos of items which, if the buyer pays sales taxes, generates income to the state.

Distributed Jan. 3, 2009.

Ambassador Sembler dines in luxury while the little boy injured at Baywalk is about to be evicted.

Mankind was my business. The ghost of Jacob Marley from "A Christmas Carol."

Few people discount the importance of discussing abstinence. In Florida
— with the sixth highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation and one of
the highest rates of new AIDS cases — it should be part of any sex
education discussion. But common sense dictates teenagers need more

Yesterday I was listening to an AM radio station that “caught my eye.” His topic was Israel and the latest war.

He was saying what I have thought for the last five years. Both the problem and the solution are right here in the USA.

The article in Sunday’s St. Pete Times states “there was a shocking quality to Saturday’s attacks, in broad daylight, as police cadets were graduating, women were shopping at the outdoor market, and children were emerging from school.” Is this Israel defending itself or is this state-sponsored mass murder, genocide and terrorism?

The St. Petersburg Times story on the birth of Sarah Palin’s grandson to her unmarried daughter is presented as a cause for celebration. It fails to mention that the child’s father is a high school dropout whose mother was recently arrested on federal drug-dealing charges, not auspicious for the couple’s future.

Dottie Kerber shares this tale of her struggles with unemployment bureaucracy:

I went to an AMC theater to see one of the latest holiday movies. While standing in line, I overheard a young gentleman ask if they had a military discount. No, answered the teller, we don’t do that anymore. I was taken back by AMC theaters discontinuance of the practice.

As 2008 draws to a close I reflect upon what has proved to be a most trying and disturbing year in my life and of almost everyone I know. I have never been a person to make “resolutions” but I feel the need this year. Not the usual lose weight, stop smoking kind but resolutions we need to make as a nation, perhaps you have some you may wish to add as well.

This article should raise the ire of all taxpayers in Florida, especially at this time of economic recession and increasing unemployment rates. With looming budget deficits, there is a high likelihood that Florida government at all levels will be forced to raise taxes, cut services or not reduce property taxes in the face of falling home values as it should.

I have my radio set to WRBQ “Oldies’ station to go off every morning at 5:30a.m. I woke this morning to my usual alarm. In my “half-awake’ state of mind, I was shot out of bed when I heard Mason Dixon telling me that half of “OUR” radio family had been let go! What a way to start the week, and right before Christmas!

This year some of Florida's public officials are giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "home for the holidays.''

It's a new crop of double dippers, taking advantage of a loophole in
state law that allows them to "retire'' by taking 30 days off and
return to work in their old jobs with a salary and a pension. Many also
collect a lump-sum "retirement'' payment that can reach hundreds of
thousands of dollars.

I am not a palm reader, mentalist, sooth-sayer, crystal ball or tea leave reader, but I would like to point out what we can expect in corporate propaganda come this next March.

More than a year before accepting a controversial job with his
hometown college, House Speaker Ray Sansom was regularly taking

You're right! No more taxpayer bailout money to banks without
major strings attached and specifications as to how the money is to be
used, along with major penalties for failing to do so. That should have
been the case from the beginning.

This unfortunate story, in a nutshell, illustrates why I am against the death penalty.

On Friday, President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, admired their own images at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

I am an English visitor to the United States and live here for six months every year. The other night I went to a restaurant locally and after the meal I was presented with a bill which had an 18 percent tip added to the total of $43.46. The tip was $7.82 and the tax was $3.04, which brings the total to $54.32.

I only had $49 in cash which I gave to the waiter as I thought that would be okay as I have always thought tipping was discretionary and my choice as to what I left.

There will always be buget problems as long as certain things or groups are exempt. One of the biggest leaches on the tax system are churches. Everyone else has to make up money that they don’t have to pay. I wonder how much this would come to? They receive all the services taxpayers pay but don’t want to donate when the plate comes their way.

Your articles on the "play for pay" of our legislators is fantastic. What is the difference between them and the governor of Illinois and his "play for pay"?

Recently, Chicago workers at a Republic plant sat in and occupied that plant demanding back severance pay and benefits they'd been denied when they had been laid off. They won their demands.

It doesn't have to be December, one could conceivably insert any month in its place as we are drowning in financial despair. However, Christmas, once a happy and hopeful Holiday, now serves as a reminder of the things we are unable to do; the New Year, merely a new month with the accompanying bills to fret.

A couple of weeks ago, a senior adviser to Barack Obama dismissed
the argument raging at the time over the choice the president-elect
faced in naming a secretary of education, writes the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne.

I had the pleasure of visiting one of the hospitals mentioned in your article. The picture you published is accurate.

Now I want to know why the politicians have not cracked down on these drug companies. What good is it to have the Food and Drug Administration if they allow information gathered under such horrendous
circumstances to be used in assessing the safety of drugs prescribed in the United States?

Here are two links, one to the 12-19-2008 St. Pete Times article by Robert Trigaux on the jobless rate in the Tampa Bay area, and one a link to former content I created entitled, "Revolutionary Socialist Solution to Unemployment, Economic Crisis, Fascism."

12-19-2008:

Capitalist Economic Crisis: Revolutionary Perspectives for the Working Class, Links - Part I:

Lowry Park Zoo President Lex Salisbury resigned this afternoon at the request of the zoo's board. The board had met today to address questions about a critical city audit.

The 60-page audit says Salisbury took zoo animals and materials to both Safari Wild, his yet-to-open Polk County exotic animal park, and his residential game ranch in Pasco County.

We all have our moments of dubious achievement.