In Westeros, rape is the sport of kings and a pastime for peasants. Game of Thrones-watchers have been moved to anger, angst and apoplexy over the steady stream of sexually-based offenses inflicted upon women in the Seven Kingdoms. This is a puzzlement to Sophie Turner, who made her acting debut at age 13 as the highborn, ill-fated Sansa Stark in HBO’s mash-up of Middle Earth and the Middle Ages.
An unvarnished, unqualified apology is hard to find these days, so let’s take a moment to thank Duval County Circuit Judge Hugh Carithers for reminding us what it looks like. Last month, the 1st District Court of Appeal repealed an unfortunate order of a Jacksonville-based hearing officer, and replaced it with a reminder that hearing officers do not have the authority to put people in jail for failing to pay child support. When the Jacksonville Times-Union came calling for the…
In 1960s Dade County, men who were privileged to be newspaper columnists could — and did — mock “women’s libbers” like Roxcy Bolton in the pages of the Miami Herald. Department stores could — and did — have fancy private dining rooms open only to men. Banks could — and did — deny credit cards and loans to women who did not have a husband or father willing to co-sign. If police and prosecutors thought about rape at all, they…
Pictures of the young Bill Cooke show a brooding, handsome, James Dean kind of guy who seems to belong in front of a camera. Lucky for us that he did not see himself that way. Cooke died last week at age 70, leaving behind a sister, a heartbroken Florida journalism community, and a body of work that serves history and inspires the photojournalists who knew him well, and the ones who wish they could have known him better. Among the…
Joe Scarborough and his Morning Joe sidepiece Mika Brzezinski certainly deserve each other, but viewers deserve better from NBC News. The left wing’s answer to Fox & Friends took their relationship “to the next level” by admitting that their “crackling chemistry” has moved them to make marital plans. After being scooped on the story by Page Six, Scar ‘n Mika copped to being shacked up in the south of France when Joe popped the question. But nobody gets fired at…
This afternoon, The Rick Scott and Pam Bondi Opioid Listening Tour opens in West Palm Beach. Scott and Bondi won’t be there, but People with Big Titles and No Power will. Scott, who used to run hospitals for a living, thinks that mosquitoes carrying Zika are a public health emergency, even as Floridians and medical tourists who VISIT Florida’s criminal enterprises masquerading as “sober homes” are dropping like flies. When Scott and Bondi’s designated listeners roll into town, they’ll be…
Countin’ down to sine die, the House and Senate education budget conferees have bumped the secretive university and state college “direct support organizations” up the chain of command for further grinding. Soon, we’ll know how serious the House is about forcing the DSOs to operate in the sunshine. DSO top brass are paid princely salaries with public funds. Yet, they operate with all the transparency of a Swiss bank. We hear about them only when they do something really stupid…
