Sex And Pork

I was wondering why Hillsborough County hired Scott Bergthold. I now know why. Hillsborough County commissioners voted 7-0 for new rules for adult businesses.

* Strippers must perform in a room that's at least 1,000 square feet.

* Adult theaters inside adult bookstores have to be lit to a specific level of brightness.

* Private viewing rooms have to be visible from a central operating station.

* Scantily clad employees cannot touch customers in establishments that sell alcohol.

These new regulations get passed right before before the general election. The Commission threw out Luke Lirot evidence in favor of Bergthold's. Lirot contends that there is no major evidence that adult establishment cause secondary effects to communities. He has a point. Tampa is known for two things - strip clubs and overpriced homes above true market value.

"The county can rely on any information reasonably believed to be relevant," said Scott Bergthold, whose law firm in Chattanooga, Tenn., specializes in helping local governments strengthen and defend their public nudity laws.

Yes, Bergthold is relying on the truthiness defense. I see this being another costly court battle. The County Commission had it's ass handed to by Gemini Property Ventures.Let's not Ronda Storms archenemy Black Sock the sock puppet. Storms attempted to have the county end funding for public access and Black Sock. The county lost. Judge Moody actually put a restraining order against the county.

U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. said yesterday that forcing the channel to shut down would create "immediate, irreparable harm." Moody issued the temporary restraining order, which is to last through Oct. 15, when a hearing is scheduled in federal court.

Who knew that county commissioners were more dangerous than sock puppets? State Attorney concluded that Black Sock did not threaten her. This is what Ober's office wrote.

61. On May 8, 2002, Mark Ober, the Hillsborough County State Attorney, issued an opinion that the Happy Show was not obscene. He also ruled that a perceived threat to Commissioner Storms by a black sock puppet called "Black Sock," a character on "The Happy Show, "did not constitute a criminal threat, as Commissioner Storms had previously claimed. Finally, he also found that the emailed photograph of a woman's pierced genitalia which Commissioner Storms claimed had been sent to her was not obscene. (Letter of 5/8/02 from Ober to Acton, Ex. 26).

"I think the state attorney has declared open season on me," said Storms.

No. The courts and State Attorney's office is tired of dealing with this kind of frivolous nonsense. What the taxpayers don't know is that they pay hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars in legal fees. The Commission is a little too obsessed with adult entertainment. It's like a jones they can't kick. I really don't want to hear morally lectures from people who support the highly unethical expressway to nowhere. The Commission want the portray themselves as being for moral values and fiscal conservatism. I only see a mad obession with sex and pork.