While their ads insist that "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there," in Florida the carrier is behaving more like Clint Eastwood's character in "Gran Torino"--brandishing a deadly weapon and warning everyone to get off his lawn.

State Farm gave the public yet another reason to distrust insurers by announcing it would pull out of Florida's homeowners market, leaving over 1.2 million clients up the creek, shortly after its request for a 47.1 average premium increase was turned down.

While State Farm has good reasons to insist on reforms in the Sunshine State's dysfunctional insurance market, its take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum--give us this monster hike, or we'll be the ones taking a hike--undermines what's left of the industry's already lousy reputation for fair play.