Lopping off choice bits from Howard Troxler's columns and presenting them out of context is sacrilege of a sort; he has the knack of laying out his arguments so deftly, and so irresistibly, that you really have to — correction, you really want to read them in their entirety. Besides, excerpts only let you in on part of the fun — and even at his angriest, one of his strengths as a columnist was that he was always, always fun to read.
But all that said, what am I going to do? Give you excerpts. Read 'em and weep (because we won't be able to read 'em anymore in a Tampa Bay newspaper). —David Warner
From "For sale, one state: Everything must go." St. Petersburg Times, Aug. 19, 2007
In darker hours, I fear that we are just kidding ourselves by worrying about the future of Florida at all. The future was decided a long time ago.
It consists of building something on every vacant piece of land in this state as long as there is a dollar to be made.
No government can stand in the way. In fact, the chief purpose of government in Florida is to help the process along, under the fake name of "planning."
From "Once more, with feeling: Make judges move out of the 'Taj Mahal,'" St. Petersburg Times, Sept. 19, 2010
One more time:
Make them move.
Make. Them. Move.
Kick the 1st District Court of Appeal out of the Taj Mahal. The court robbed the money for its new palace from the public. It snookered the taxpayers. It grabbed $48 million, and worse, it did it by last-minute trickery and sleaze and political connections in the Legislature, and even worse than that, it did it by driving the public further into debt with a sneaky law to borrow most of the money.
From "One last chance to stop leadership funds," St. Petersburg Times, May 3, 2011
One last time, before the Florida Legislature is scheduled to adjourn this week …
One last time, it has to be said.
No matter what else this 2011 Legislature does, wise or unwise, it has done one thing that screams for attention.
It has legalized its own direct bribery.
…And if the members of the Legislature who did it expect to get away with it. …
Then the people of Florida should spend the next year and a half making them regret it.
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2011.