Get ready: Here’s your summer-sex-scandal-special edition of...
Darts & Laurels
It was a rough week for same-sex couples wishing to get married in Florida. Just when a victory in Monroe County seemed like a possibility, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi denied one Key West gay couple’s plea for a marriage license while higher courts debate the constitutionality of Florida’s same-sex marriage ban. We’re giving a keep-fighting-the-good-fight LAUREL to Florida couples filing lawsuits and demanding marriage equality in Florida.
Meanwhile, as all these lovely couples are waiting for, y’know, basic rights, straight people are busy doin’ it in broad daylight on the beach. We’re tossing a you-couldn’t-think-of-a-better-place-to-do-the-nasty DART to the Florida couple having sex on Bradenton Beach, who were caught on video by a passer-by. At this point, we’re convinced Gawker would fold if so many whackos in Florida stopped doing gross things.
We were excited to report earlier this week that the Gator Growl lineup was announced, and it both included a comedian and excluded pandering-to-alumni musicians. Ludacris and Foster the People will appear for Gator Growl 2014, and new-SNL-alumnus Brooks Wheelan will emcee. So this week, a step-in-the-right-direction LAUREL is going to the Gator Growl committee.
The Tampa Bay Business Journal reported that Google helped Florida’s economy by assisting in the generation of $6.5 billion of economic activity. Visit Florida, the state’s central tourism campaign, increased its media budget to include funding for Google AdWords and AdSense, and Google gave $2.7 million in free advertising last year through AdGrants. On one hand, tourism is Florida’s biggest moneymaker, but on the other hand — ugh, tourists. We’re handing off a money-yes-shoobies-no FLART at Google.
We close with our final DART: Gainesville Mayor Ed Braddy. When you hold public office and are responsible for the livelihood of an entire city — especially one that houses a large university — you’re expected to maintain a certain level of decorum. This week, the mayor filed and subsequently rescinded a complaint about a stalker, an “ex-paramour,” according to the Gainesville Sun, who flooded Braddy and Braddy’s girlfriend with incessant texts and Facebook messages after Braddy ended the affair in June. The Sun wrote: “During that relationship, the woman would send Braddy ‘provocative’ or ‘racy’ messages and, if he had a ‘sexually charged response,’ she would forward it to his girlfriend, the police report stated.”
Some debate surrounds the Sun’s decision to run the story on the complaint and its details. However, we feel residents and voters have a right to know if an elected official is violating the city’s code of ethical standards, which states, “...successful operation of a democratic government requires that employees observe the highest standards of morality...Their conduct in both their official and private affairs must be above reproach.”
Obviously, no one deserves to be stalked, but the details surrounding this complaint are pretty sketchy — and most definitely reproachful.
[A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 7/24/2014 under the headline "Darts & Laurels"]
