Image credit: James Madison by John Vanderlyn, 1816 (via Wikipedia)
Good morning!
Have you had enough of the rain yet? No? Well, good news! It’s possible we could get some more of the wet stuff today. And keep a “Thunder Shirt” handy for your skittish canine friend as some scary, loud booming noises are well within the realm of possibility.
Today’s weather: Fortunately my thesaurus has numerous alternatives for the word “swampy.” At least enough to last until the first day of summer, still two weeks hence, on June 21. Regardless, here it is, according to the great folks at the National Weather Service office in Ruskin:
Showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 8am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. Southwest wind 8 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
We are looking at a low of around 73, with rain chances diminishing overnight.
On the plus side, the chances for rain are reasonably low for Friday, rising again only on the weekend.
Wait. What?
Personal forecast: Yep, you guessed it: Swampy.
Eye on the tropics: According to every Floridian’s friends at the National Hurricane Center:
For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico: Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days.
What to do?
If you are looking for something to do today, the Tampa Bay Summer RV Show opens at 9 a.m. at the Florida State Fairgrounds. Admission is $4 for those over 16 years of age.
If you’d like to make the trek up to the Lowry Park Zoo, check out “Dino’s Alive,” a new, special exhibit with life-sized dinosaurs and a fossil dig site. The exhibit is included in the normal zoo admission price: $32.95 and $24.95 for toddlers to Tweens.
Years ago, my wife once ordered a cheeseburger from a street stand in downtown Havana, Cuba. The burger was orange. We had no idea what it was. But don’t expect that sort of thing at the World Burger Tour at the Hard Rock Cafe at 5223 Orient Road in Tampa. This is some serious stuff. Think bacon. Think alligator. Alligator? Yep. It’s probably not orange.
If you are interested in getting your tech on, check out the Social Media Marketing Strategies seminar at 10 a.m. at the Entrepreneur Collaborative Center, 2101 E. Palm Ave. (Parking at 2109 E. 11th Ave.) in Tampa. Hey! It’s free! Click here for info.
Happenings in Hillsborough:
Thanks to the copious rain of late, the Hillsborough County ban on open burning ended at midnight last night. But if you live in a subdivision, don’t plan on torching those piled up pizza boxes — open burning of household trash in residential areas is always prohibited.
On the plus side, with a permit, you can have a campfire, at least. Yes, in a campground.
And, in the end:
On this day in 1789, James Madison introduced a proposed “Bill of Rights” in the U.S. House of Representatives. Perhaps demonstrating how everything old is new again, Madison’s bill came after an extremely bitter, partisan battle over the U.S. Constitution. Yes, we all love that enshrined document today (we do, right?) but that wasn’t always the case. So the Bill of Rights would go on to become the first ten amendments to the Constitution, providing guarantees of personal freedom along with restrictions on federal government power.
Unfortunately, Madison didn’t want amendments. He wanted the Bill of Rights actually written into the Constitution itself. Didn’t happen.
By late September, 1789, Congress had approved of a total of 12 articles of amendment. But a few of those were left hanging, awaiting ratification by two-thirds of the states.
Congress, however, set no time limit for ratification. What was Article Two, which prohibits Congress from voting in a member salary change that would take effect within that specific Congressional term, wasn’t adopted until 1992, as the 27th Amendment, more than two centuries after Madison introduced it to the House floor.
Technically, Article One, which deals with determining the size of the House of Representatives after each decennial census, is still waiting for ratification. Today it would need ratification from 27 additional states, more than double the number of all the states in 1789.
Madison probably isn’t impatiently drumming his fingers, however. Throughout the years, bills have been passed to deal with the size of the House, capping the number of members at 435.
Oh, and Madison loved the idea of building the Nation’s Capitol on the Potomac right next to his home state of Virginia. You have to wonder what he would think about the sole delegate to the U.S. House from the District of Columbia having no real voting rights even today. It is not a state, it is a district and, thus, those in that district have no Congressional representation, despite being a major city filled with duly elected representatives…from other places.
As stated clearly on D.C. license plates that nearly every Member of Congress has, “Taxation Without Representation.”
Ironic? You be the judge.
Have a great day!
