Scattershooting on this Saturday morning, still bummed out by my beloved Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles being beaten last evening by Memphis...with TCU and California still on the horizon...

--- Here's a wonderful article from today's Lakeland Ledger, written by Rollins College Professor Robert L. Moore, a native of Lakeland. The title says it all: One Election Does Not Erase Liberalism.

--- Sometimes, ya gotta learn not to play the good-old boy card. Seems as though Polk Circuit Judge Dennis Maloney, who otherwise receives high marks for his work on the bench, has been recommended to receive a public rebuke from the Florida Supreme Court for becoming improperly involved in the arrest of a friend's son. His son was riding with a friend --- the son of one of Hizzoner's close friends --- while the young man was drunk. The friend was busted for DUI, and Judge Maloney ordered Lakeland Police to turn the boozer over to his daddy, in violation of law and LPD policy. Here's the recommendation (.pdf file) from the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission.

--- Earlier this week I mentioned:

On November 2 eleven states passed ballot items to ban gay marriage. Now the Florida Baptist Convention wants to add Florida to that list. The state's largest denomination is expected to pass a measure at it's annual convention Monday and Tuesday in Jacksonville calling for a constitutional amendment to uphold the "biblical definition" of marriage as between one man and one woman. The thing is, that definition has been law in Florida since 1997, and the statute also bans recoginition of same-sex marriges performed elsewhere. So why put it in the constitution, when the Florida Legislature would not likely change the law in the forseeable future? Simple...to show the religious community's political clout in the aftermath of the 2004 election.

The resolution, writted by Rev. Jay Dennis of Lakeland's First Baptist Church at the Mall with help from State Rep. John Stargel (R-64-Lakeland), passed.without discussion. Now a group of local activists are planning to gather across Memorial Boulevard from the church tomorrow morning from 9:30-10:00 in a show of Equality and Freedom for all Americans.