Despite reflections recently about the “good old days” in Florida government, I'm not sure there ever was any such thing.

The most that can be said is that things change. But have legislative changes improved life for most Floridians?

How would you even measure that? It is all subjective.

It is different today but, contrary to what liberals think, different is not always better. Liberals tend to measure by quantitative analysis anyway: how many bills passed and how much money was spent.

Clearly gunning for a Pulitzer Prize, which apparently it thinks is a great honor, the Tampa Bay Times has discovered the obvious fact that students in government schools aren't learning.

Drawing political boundaries seems like an easy task. It's not.

The Florida Legislature has done it twice recently, and the courts didn't like either plan. This week the legislators are trying again.

A “base map” has been drawn but it hasn't exactly gotten universal approval. No plan ever will.

If programmed correctly, a computer could draw a map that would cut the peninsula up into 27 congressional districts -- squares and rectangles containing approximately the same number of people.

Recently there was a big news story in Oklahoma: lobbyists spent $300,000 on legislators.

Is that too much? Too little? We don't know from the story.

The government giveth and the government taketh away.

Last year the Legislature appropriated $4.5 million for low-income health care clinics under the umbrella of the Florida Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, a worthy organization that enlists health care providers to treat low-income people. It was the first time they received state funds.

This year, the Legislature appropriated $9.5 million but it was vetoed by Gov. Rick Scott.

There are Americans who want America to be more like it was on July 4, 1776.

It didn't change much for 230 years, but it has changed a lot since then -- some would say too much.

By change, I'm not talking about the difference between writing a declaration on parchment and typing one on your iPad. I'm talking about a fundamental transformation from exceptionalism to just another country where government is your master.

On the right coast, the First Coast Tea Party is standing up for America.

Another session of the Florida Legislature is history. After decades of watching them roll by, you begin to wonder if anything ever changes.

Since it has been a long time since I sat through sessions on a daily basis, I called upon an old-timer who knows the ropes better than I ever did.

Of all the lame arguments against school choice, the lamest must be “diversion.”

Yet, once again, it was trotted out by the Associated Press, reporting in Wisconsin:

“A Republican-approved expansion of the private-school voucher program could divert an additional $600 million to $800 million from public schools over the next decade ...”

First, the most obvious flaw: What is being diverted is students, not money. The state's duty is to educate students, not to fund government schools.

The question remaining after Jacksonville's city elections Tuesday is, was Alvin Brown a one-hit wonder?

In virtually every state where reformers are trying to give children especially poor, minority children a better chance in life, the Education Blob is vigorously opposing that goal.