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Friday New Year's Eve 2010

[Sloan’s Year in Review] Today's year-ender features a joyful Coconut Telegraph review at the behest of Deer Ed: I found it odd that you didn’t write anything about the joys of the holidays and your wish for everyone to be joyful. Happy holidays and may you have, even a little bit of Joy, ~ Ed

Well, I can’t say my holidays are joyful, and if I had written about just how unjoyful, I might have been called the Grinch. Also perhaps in play, maybe somebody needs to remind folks what’s really going on as he sees it. Certainly, I hope your and everyone’s holidays go a lot better than mine. Or wuz you just kidding me?

I wished you Joy seriously. And I still do. What more could we want? ~Ed

Thanks. Certainly I would like to experience more joy, as would everyone I know. What caused me to make the crabby response was your getting onto me about not wishing joy to the world a la Jeremiah the bull frog. Been a bit overloaded for a good while, especially as the year end approached. Not going to bed at night looking forward to tomorrow, not waking up in the morning glad I woke up.

Slavery sucks, but see no way out but to shoot myself, which I imagine would invoke serious bad karma and probably a serious slamming of my being when I woke up on the other side. I did all possible in the last campaign to get myself bumped off and all that happened was people shot water pistols and pea shooters at me. Looks like I need to change my tact.

Looking back over the year with the Coconut Telegraph, the most memorable part was the advent and departure of the Anti-Sloan. I can’t remember if I put it into a post, but George Neugent told me that he had told David Rice that it looked to him (George) that the Anti-Sloan had Jim Hendrick’s finger prints all over it. I had already arrived at much the same thought, as the Anti-Sloan’s writing style and way of thinking did resemble Jim Hendrick’s.

The other day, a poster went after me over my saying the Cathars were named after Jesus and Magdalene’s child, Catharine. That writer’s style and way of thinking, and the use of church history also reminded me of Jim Hendrick, who was trained by Jesuits and is well-steeped in church history – Catholic. That critic compared me to dung, even while labeling the child and its parent fictitious. Magdalene was about as fictitious as that critic, you and me. The child, too.

Didn’t you adopt a policy of publishing the name and email address of people who slam other CT contributors? I thought you did and that it was a good policy. Would bring much joy to the critics, such as Judith Haney, who threatened to sue you for publishing her name and email address, after she attacked me on the CT. A Birmingham woman, Judith. She didn’t like the way I dealt with my brother’s passing, and she didn’t like the way I dealt with her. I also thought she might be the Anti-Sloan, but her writing and thinking style was quite different from what I had experienced with the Anti-Sloan.

All in all, I enjoy writing, although what I endure as I move toward the next post or posts is usually quite difficult. In a way, I suppose it’s like having a baby. Excruciating pain, then joy. The problem is, it’s happening every 24-hours, and most of it is labor and there aren’t much in the way of interesting and fun roadside attractions, like Biker Chick, who came to me at your suggestion for help with a legal matter she had. A real bright moment in 2010 for this fellow, for a day. Her two posts about me on the CT, all her doing, also were bright moments.

Learning on November 2 that there were 6,900-plus insane people in the Keys also was comforting. As was people I didn’t know, or hardly knew, coming up to me here and there to say they had voted for me and were sorry I did not get elected.

Some of your wry Deer Ed comments to your CT contributors were priceless.

One the funniest moments, funny for me, occurred just the other day during a telephone conversation with Bill Loewy following up on something he had asked me to look into. Bill often tips me off on stuff to look into because he knows I will do it. He tipped me off to the Brown family’s dilemma with their crippled son not being able to live in their upstairs, so they had him living in their downstairs enclosure.

Anyway, about ten days ago, Bill called me all upset over a Canadian across the canal from him having built a big new home in 2007-2008, and he still was only paying taxes on the value of the lot. Also, he owned part of the undeveloped lot next door and was building a dock in the mangroves, which wasn’t legal. Bill said he had run it by George Neugent, and I wondered why Bill was bothering me with it.

Even so, I called the Tax Assessor’s office and spoke with a fellow named Kenny, in whose beat Cudjoe Gardens was. He said they somehow had missed that new home and he would take care of it. He did not say it had already been taken care of, although Bill had told me he had already talked to the Tax Assessor’s office about it. Maybe George had talked with them, maybe not.

Kenny said, yes, they receive notices of completed houses and issuance of certificates of occupancy from the county building department, and that’s how they know to reassess vacant lots to improved property. This one somehow had slipped though the cracks. No, there was no payola involved, which Bill had suggested might be the case. Kenny got a bit weird when I asked about the payola possibility.

When later I explained all of this to Bill, he was still hopping mad about the dock in the mangroves issue. I said he ought to take that up with George Neugent, since he had backed and voted for George. Bill said George wasn’t interested in the dock. I said again, George was his commissioner, he had backed and voted for him. Bill said I had not asked people to vote for me. I said I had told people what I would do if I was elected and they didn’t want that kind of commissioner. I said I would have jumped on the tax and dock thing right away and he (Bill) knew it. I said he had voted for the wrong candidate. I was having fun, Bill was not.

Well, I didn’t jump on the dock in the mangroves. I told Bill he should jump on it. Raise hell about it. File a complaint with the Department of Environmental Protection and then have happen to him what Sandy Downs had happen to her when she reported Phillip Goodman for slaughtering mangroves near his home on an island owned by the State of Florida. Phil Goodman somehow had wrangled a phosphate mining permit for cutting mangroves, even though he was not and never had been in the phosphate mining business. Phil Goodman, who, along with his wife and daughter, run the Republican Party in the Keys. Phil Goodman and his wife and daughter, who are George Neugent’s good friends. George never admitted the Goodmans did anything wrong.

When Bill didn’t seem to like that suggestion, I said he should contact Tim O’ Hara at the Citizen, see if he wanted to write about the tax dodge and dock mangrove mangling across the canal from his home? Bill said Tim was up to his wazoo in being busted for marijuana for sale. I said Tim was still writing articles daily, just that day was a big one on the front page of the Citizen. Bill said he might contact Tim.

Bill is not the only person who voted for George and then came to me for help with something after Nov. 2. I shoved their votes down their throats and up their asses, and that gave me some measure of perverted joy. More of having Biker Chick ride me and me ride her and her bike hanging onto her tits would have been more of the kind of joy I would have preferred to have.

Running for office was joyful only once, and that was when I ran for mayor of Key West and promoted the city getting a nude beach. That was fun. The rest of the races were hell, although there were joyful moments when I stuck it to somebody who had earned it. No short supply of those types, but not like getting laid, or talking with somebody about something other than the weather, who actually understands what I’m talking about, which hasn’t happened in over five years.

Oh, the name and address of the Canadian across the canal from Bill Loewy is R. E. Miller, 4th Ave. W., Cudjoe Gardens, Cudjoe Key. Same Key Sandy and the Goodmans’ call home. 

See the whole thing at goodmorningfloridakeys.com.

There are entirely too many people. I also like comparing humans to cockroaches. 

Some of my reflections for this time of year.
Birds of a feather flock together and then crap on your car.

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat have gotten to be really good friends.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

He who hesitates is probably right.

If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame.

The sole purpose of aging is that eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know why I look this way.  I've traveled a long way and some of the bars weren't really that cool.

You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young. Aw, bull s**t, being young is beautiful, but being old sucks!

Lord, keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand off my wallet.

North American English dialects, based on pronunciation patterns. Who says what and how. http://bit.ly/fAEEuv

Arcimboldo, Reversible Head with Basket of Fruit, 1590

What is L. E. Shaffer of the Marathon Journal so upset about? He seems to disagree with every thing the Council does.

Times are so tough:

I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
CEO's are now playing miniature golf.
Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced.
I saw a Mormon polygamist with only one wife.
If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
Wives are having sex with their husbands because they can't afford batteries.
McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer.
I saw a liberal with his hand in his own pocket.
Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America .
My cousin had an exorcism but couldn't afford to pay for it, and they re-possessed her!
People are standing behind President George Bush wherever he goes hoping for free shoes.
Michelle and Bo had to fly on the same plane.
When Bill and Hillary travel together, they now have to share a room.
A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.
A picture is now only worth 200 words.
The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.
I can’t even afford to pay attention.
I went to my bank the other day and the teller handed me a note saying: This is a robbery!
I saw the CEO of Wal-Mart shopping at Wal-Mart.
The highest-paying job in town is jury duty.
Even people who aren’t in Barack Obama’s cabinet aren’t paying taxes.
A prostitute asked me if she could borrow $20 until she can get back on her back.
Nigerians are getting calls saying that they've won the lottery.
When you see your neighbor kicking a can down the street and ask what he's doing ... he says he's moving.
Q: What’s the difference between an investment banker and a large pizza? A: A large pizza can feed a family of four.
Q: What’s the difference between Investment Bankers and New York City Pigeons? A: The Pigeons are still capable of making deposits on new BMW’s.
I’ve been so poor for so long they put my face on the front of food stamps.
I’m so poor I can’t even give my 2 cents worth on the Coconut Telegraph

I guess it takes three carloads of deputies to manually operate the traffic light on Big Pine.  At least that's how many were parked there yesterday.

I hope you can catch tonight’s episode of Key West Time. It was a hoot filming this one. I talk with Captain Ricky Tomer, a 4th generation Key West Shrimper on the docks of Stock Island about catching shrimp for a living.  Then we go to the Hogfish Bar & Grill where Bobby Mongelli shows us how to put together your own Key West Shrimp and Lobster Boil.

My friend Patty Wacker shows us how to make the perfect Mia Tai and then we are off to the Pirates in Paradise festival.

Closing the episode is the 10 day Fantasy Fest festival, I was the Parade Grand Marshal. The band and I perform “Living On Key West Time”, traveling down Duval Street on a float in the Fantasy Fest Parade. This was way cool!

MMXI is 2011 in Roman Numerals

New Year’s Eve in Key West: A Wench, A Shell and A Drag Queen. http://bit.ly/gRrrTk

PFC Manning update. I hope we can learn something from this in the New Year. Support our troops don't forget them. http://bit.ly/gTYUTn

[Recycling Tip] You can make a lovely, shiny hat out of previously used aluminum foil.

The cougar problem is caused by the nitwits who think it's a good idea to re-introduce a large predatory animal to areas where people and their domesticated animals now live.  Only those who live in ivory towers with their noses in books would think that's brilliant.  Theoretically the cats would prey on the deer, keeping that population in check, but practically it is much easier to kill humans, pets, and livestock.  That concept does not enter the equations dreamed up by the eggheads.  Those of us living in the real world, and the big cats, deal with the consequences.

Poinsettia care info. http://bit.ly/dZ3tWY

If gas goes to $5 what's going to happen to the minimum wage?  It takes the average minimum wage earner 2.2 hours to get net pay enough to buy a garbage burger at McD's, let along pay a mortgage, feed the brats, and dress the old lady.

Florida at night from the ISS, upside down. http://bit.ly/eKfsv0

Probation for killing after dog pees on prize lawn. It’s much simpler to curb your canine. http://on.msnbc.com/fb7oye

[More bar wisdom] I'm not very savvy about wine-- is this one supposed to taste like ass?

Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday. Someday is not a day of the week.

[Ox penis] Make sure the expiration date has not passed.

[More Bar Wisdom] Having children is hereditary; if your parents didn’t have any neither will you!

Welcome to "no refusal weekends"!  We already have these in Texas, with some of our counties ranking highest in the nation for DUI's, DUI deaths, and refusals to blow.  No blow?  No problemo.  They just trained our cops to draw blood.

Tour the Enola Gay cockpit. You can drag the pointer in all directions. http://bit.ly/f5HXyx

Snoop Dogg’s New Year’s Eve song. We're having a good time. http://bit.ly/fq9lyI

NATIONAL POLITICS

[No More Middle Class] 22 statistics that prove the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America. http://read.bi/hj393t

[Gas] In early June of 2008 gas prices peaked at about $4.10 per gallon. President Bush lifted an existing oil drilling ban. Gas prices immediately plummeted to about $1.62. On the day that Obama took office, 1/20/10, the gas prices were about $1.85. In May 2010 Obama imposed his first drilling moratorium. In December ’10 he imposed a new 7 year drilling moratorium. Today the price of gas in Marathon is about $3.25. Maybe we should resolve to scrap the Obama drilling moratoriums. Happy New Year.

[A Brief History of Mossad] In 1962 Israel's military intelligence learned that Egypt had built a secret facility in the desert, known as Factory 333 and staffed by German sci­entists, builders of the VI and V2 rock­ets that had devastated London. Even the project's security chief was a veteran of Hitler's SS.

In 1962 in order to wipe out Israel, the Egyptians' plan was to build some 900 missiles. But the program had a weakness, and the Mossad found it: the Egyptians needed the German scientists' help to start mass production of the missiles. At that moment Israel began a decades-long campaign to eliminate scientists working for its enemies on missiles and weapons of mass destruction. The Mossad called that first operation Damocles, invoking an image of impending doom from Greek myth. The aim was to scare off the Germans at least as much as to kill them, so efforts to cover the assassins' tracks were often minimal, enough to protect the killers.

In April of 1962, two Mossad agents in Basel accosted Heidi Goerke, the daughter of project manager Paul Goerke, and threatened to kill both him and her. The two agents were briefly jailed. The anti-Egypt campaign was start­ing to upset Israel's allies. In September of that year Heinz Krug, head of a Factory 333 shell company called Intra, vanished in Munich. In November two parcel bombs arrived at the office of the missile project's director, Wolfgang Pilz, maiming his secretary and killing five Egyptian workers. In February 1963 another Factory 333 scientist, Hans Kleinwachter, defected in fear for his life and Egypt abandoned its plot. To cool things down, intelligence on Factory 333 was shared with the West German govern­ment, which pressured its scientists to quit the project, offering them jobs in Germany instead. Nearly all the scientists accepted.

A period of relative quiet ensued until the late 1970s, when Israeli intelligence found signs that Saddam Hussein was pursuing a secret nuclear-development program in Iraq, and agents began hunt­ing a new set of weapons scientists. In June 1980 Mossad agents unexpectedly spotted Egyptian nuclear expert Yehia El Mashad at a Paris hotel. He was working for Saddam, and the Mossad agents had orders to kill him on sight. Caught with­out their weapons, they improvised by breaking into his room and clubbing him to death. A prostitute told police she had heard what sounded like an argument from outside the room, but she died in a hit-and-run incident not long after her preliminary statement.

Iraq's nuclear program was seriously damaged by Israel's bombing of the Osirak reactor in June 1981, but Saddam did not give up his quest for powerful weapons. He soon signed up Gerald Bull, a Canadian-born, Belgium-based engineer and arms dealer who had invented what he called a supergun, an artillery piece with a range in the thousands of kilometers. As soon as Israeli weapons experts confirmed that Bull's cannon was for real, he became a target.

In March 1990 a Mossad hit team knocked on the door of his Brussels apartment, burst in when he opened it, and fired two bullets into the back of his head and three into his back. One member of the team took close-up photos of the corpse. The pictures were sent to other European employees of the Iraqi project with a note: "If you don't want a similar fate, don't go to work tomorrow." Israel's defense chiefs can only hope the message continues to resonate.

Net neutrality? http://bit.ly/hwYU88

Gas seems to be creeping up again as it did during Bush’s term in office. Predictions are that it will go up over $4.00 a gallon in the next year. Now we have a majority of Republicans in office. Coincidence?  Yup, we went from change to changing back. More to come. Get ready folks, the new Republican you put in the Governors seats want oil platforms in the Eastern Gulf. Don’t cry about an oil spill if it comes, its all part of the “changing back” platform.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed during operations against bandits near the southern Arizona town of Rio Rico , approximately 15 miles inside the U.S. border. Americans are dying because of White House inaction. http://bit.ly/gLUd69

The war on terror, as George Orwell noted in his 1984, is endless. The enemy is everywhere. The era of amusement is being replaced by the era of repression. We are the most monitored and spied-on citizenry in human history. Citizens have had their e-mails and phone records turned over to the government.  Many have their daily routine caught on dozens of security cameras. Proclivities and habits are recorded on the Internet. Our profiles are electronically generated. Our bodies are patted down at airports and filmed by scanners. And we are constantly urged to report suspicious activity. Terror, even for those who have nothing to do with terror, becomes the blunt instrument used by Big Brother to protect us from ourselves.

A religious person is a dangerous person be they Christian or Muslim. They may not become a thief or a murderer, but they are liable to become a nuisance. They carry with them many foolish and harmful superstitions, and they are possessed with the notion that it is their duty to give these superstitions to others. In a study done at Cornell University, it was found that atheists were 63 percent more likely to return a wallet found on the street than self-described Christians. The research was done with a planted wallet and a hidden camera.

[From the Right Guy’s New Year’s Resolutions] At the end of every year it is appropriate to review the year past and to ponder if you have done all that you could have done to make the world a better place. It matters how you have treated your loved ones and those around you. That's why, like so many other folks, I elect to make a list of New Year’s resolutions. Here is some of mine.

I will post only on those topics that are not controversial. I will not aggravate Mr. Obama’s supporters.

I will fully support the efforts of our President to change our society.

I will take any Republican or conservative lawmaker to task if he/she refuses to engage in bipartisan partnerships with their Democrat counterparts.

I will accept at face value everything Mr. Obama says.

I will refrain from harshly criticizing Mr. Obama or his policies.

I will not be annoyed when inane Obama supporters say that Mr. Obama is responsible for the troop reduction in Iran. I will not be annoyed at them only because they really believe that.

I will be empathetic to Obama supporters because if I were an Obama supporter I would be annoyed at being routinely discredited.

I will “turn the other cheek”

I will refrain from reading biased conservative propaganda, or watching Fox News. I will watch only MSNBC and will only read The Huffington Post and barakobama.con, oops, sorry I meant .com.

I will avoid responding to any insults levied at me by my critics.

I will make no posting that is longer than 140 characters. Tweet rules will rule.

I will abjure my allegiance to conservative principles.

I will acknowledge and respect the intellect of my critics by refraining from using “big” words like inane, abjur, allegiance, and empathetic.

I will make only brief, sunny, and good natured postings.

I will not insult my critics.

And so there you have it my Deer Friends; a whole new and wholesome FTR is coming. I will be a kinder and gentler FTR who just wants to get along.

(Part II) Special to the perplexed net neutrality poster. You are right on if you are confused, welcome aboard. I suggest that you read the WSJ article of 11/19/10 by one of the FCC Commissioners, Robert McDowell. There are hundreds of articles and opinion pieces on the web, search away. Good and bad arguments on all sides of the issue. To me it all boils down to the unnerving development that the FCC has seized the power to decide who the “gatekeepers” will be. To me that means the government is really the gatekeeper. As I understand it now, we can come and go on the web as we wish, our access costs are determined by market forces. Our content choices are controlled only by our own personal decisions. With government intrusion comes government control. Will the government elect to control content, will it set end user fees, and otherwise diddle the web in favor of which gatekeeper makes the biggest political contribution? The web seems to work just fine now. There are cogent arguments on both sides of the issue. When faced with that dilemma, my default posture is to let the free market rule. It is true that politics have controlled issues such as this. I believe that can be changed. It should change, some are trying to change it. Happy research in the New Year.

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Friday December 31, 2010

Thursday December 30, 2010

[I Didn't Ask to be Born] I have 4 children, the eldest is 31 and the youngest is a 17 year old. When they were much younger and I would send them on a chore or when they would get upset over something, they would say, "I didn't ask to be born!" I didn't know what to say when they would say that.

One day I sat down and really tried to think of a logical reply to that comment. Then it hit me! I was now ready. I was now armed with the response that I knew would shut them up. So finally it happened. "Well, I didn't ask to be born!" one said. I looked him straight in the eyes and told him,

"Yes you did because out of all the millions of sperm that were fighting to enter your mother's egg when you were conceived, you were the single sperm that penetrated the egg. You were the one that fought tooth and nail to beat the millions of others and you were the one that won that battle. You forced your way into that egg so you cold be born. So, yes, you did ask to be born. In fact you insisted on being born.”

After that, I never heard any of them ever say that to me again.

Happy New Year!

[Sloan] I used to think Sloan was full of it, but after reading what he has to say, for quite a while, I have become quite impressed. Keep up the good work Sloan. (Thank you, my son. You have lost your ever-loving mind. ~Sloan)

Today's howling takes a look at "teaching and suicide" You can see the entire conflagration by clicking on this link: goodmorningfloridakeys.com. Here's a sampling:
 
After I matured into Hemingway, I admired him for taking himself out. He knew he had brain cancer. He knew he was going mad. He did not want to end up in an institution, not after the life of adventure he had lived, with all of its ups and downs. If you ever quit threatening to retire and do it and move down here for good, we may indeed have time to talk about Hemingway and The Old Man and the Sea many times. But I’d need to be able to drink more beer than I am allowed to drink, to spend much more time hashing and rehashing Hemingway, which recent discussion turned out to have pushed a lot of buttons I wasn’t expecting it to push. I’d prefer just to hear you sing and such at open mic, and swap lies and true lies about life. And I’d like to have a lady sitting beside me when we do it, because your lady will be there and I will get all jealous and bent out of shape over still being a monk. I counted it up today. It’s been six years early next month, since I became a monk, only with the very brief interruption Biker Chick provided this summer. I tell you truly, being a monk sucks; I see nothing holy, righteous or good about it. It’s against God and the Bible, viewing Paul as a molester of people’s souls because they wanted to have sex and he told them to give it up and be like him. Personally, I’d rather shoot myself than give up sex. Giving up drinking beer, good dry wine, fine scotch and tequila didn’t cause me to want to live here any longer, either. Nor did getting beat up day and night by angels, and being bored out of my mind most of the time.

[Homeless wanting to be homeless]  There are some who prefer that life, there are others who do a terrific job of sabotaging their every opportunity so they have an excuse to be miserable.  But there are some who got there through genuine misfortune and who will make good use of a hand-up.

[The Year in Ideas] Click on each headline.  http://nyti.ms/hylheT

[Energy efficient homes use landscaping] I worked on an ocean front yard to provide all of this for 15 years. I just sold it and the new owner used an axe, hand pick, and chain saw to destroy all of it within 2 weeks. I hope this article will reach a new Keys home owner and give them the knowledge, instead of the continued ignorance and abuse of our fragile endangered area. http://bit.ly/8kMDV3

Arcimboldo paintings associate the spectacle of the portraits to the realism of the plants represented. To the historian, such testimonies are invaluable, because they clearly document the presence of particular plant species or varieties in 16th century Italy. In Summer, a corn ear (introduced from the Americas after 1492), a brown eggplant (introduced from Asia by the Arabs and arrived to Europe in the 15th century), and a prickly artichoke similar to several Italian local present day varieties may be observed.

[Lizards Missing] I opened my house today for the first time since the cold spell and couldn’t find any of my regular lizards. Do you think they all died from the coldest December in history?

Marathon City Council New Year's Resolution Wish List

1.  This is likely the last 2010 article coming from the Marathon Florida Keys Journal. The resolutions are items that the council must accomplish in 2011. Of course, the council always follows our mandates. Really! Would I kid you?

2. How about Marathon City Council following its existing rules or at least modify them to their liking. e.g. agendas are supposed to be locked in by Thursday. That includes lay downs just before a meeting. Exceptions would have to be voted on by the council. They are, after all, supposed to be in control of their own rules.

3. Jim Lowry But one must remember the difference between a Law, a Rule, a Guideline, and a Regulation.

4. That is good, Jim. I make that another resolution. How about changing a winning vote from simple majority to three votes needed? Something between simple and super majority. I like it.

5. Marathon City Council members must not work directly with any city staffer. Only two that are allowed are City Manager and City Attorney.

6. Marathon City Council members must start working on 2011 budget now and provide greater opportunity for resident input. If the council insists on cutting tax revenues again without holding the other taxing entities accountable like the school board, then I have some suggestions. Cut council to 3 members. Stop hiring new positions. Sell city land. Everyone must pay for staff time. Put committees, boards, and commissions on standby or cut meetings to quarterly. Stop paying the county for services that are doable by city cheaper and more effectively like getting own cable channel, moving all meetings to firehouse, show all meetings live, record all meetings for repeat viewing. Sell city equipment not involved in safety and resident welfare. Eliminate council funds. Cut councilmember pay and benefits. There is more, much more. Get serious or resign.

7. Jim Lowry, as far as the City budget, something must come first, in order. The first thing a city, county or country must do is protect its citizens, as in Crime and Fire/Rescue. Next is public health, as is medical care. Everything else comes.below that. The police (MCSO) is under contract with the city. The Fire department is the city. So these two areas are/should be addressed last. During these times, the third thing Marathon must do is bring in dollars. The industry is Tourist. Money spent to bring in Tourist should be a dollar spent brings in at least 20 percent more than goes out.

Now looking at the rest, the city should have a database setup with a user program whereby the managers can do a trend analysis from the last 5 years of data going forward. This analysis should be monthly, yearly. And include everything from paper clips to stamps, to Health care to road work. Without this ability, the City leaders and manager are guessing. And that does not work in business or government. The trend analysis can be written in house in a few weeks or brought in and setup within 30 days. The cost? It will pay for itself 10 times over the 1 first year. Without a full trend analysis the city will always be guessing. This must be done now not next year or year after, but now get the tools needed to see everything.

8. Wow, Jim, good for you. I can use some of your stuff in a quote. I would add that the city does not need a 5 or 10 year plan, but they must filter all their decisions through the 5 and 10-year lens. Like if we do this now, whatever it is, what are the results 5 and 10-years later. You would so very different decisions if that process was used. As you said, you do not mess with safety. Someone gets maimed, killed, complete loss of property, and all the council's cheap decisions will come back on them. Our new firehouse is worth more than every penny spent. What is the value of your health, life, or property? Expenses in any structure are easily mitigated. I don't know about this Ramsay metal buildings thing. I hesitate to call it stupid, as there are times some of his "idears" are pure genius once you get past stupid. NO, Dick is not stupid, but a few of his “ideas” stirs that outburst in me. 

9. Marathon Code Compliance and Code Board are broke. Marathon City Council must insist that the Code Board abide by the code that they are supposed to adjudicate. The Code Board is the final stop for cases that the city's Code Compliance Department could not get to comply after trying everything to do so. If you want none of your friends, family, and friendly contractors to escape any justifiable code complaint, stack the deck with appointments to the Code Board and get rid of honest Code Compliance Officers. Then reduce funding for the whole shebang. Lastly, defang the rest of the poor city employees in the Code Compliance Department. I say that the Marathon City Council must fix this either by doing the right thing or just eliminating both the Code Board and Code Compliance Department altogether.

10. Marathon City annual contracts change very little. This leads to increased customer complaints. There is no incentive to improve or at least maintain high quality customer services. If a new bidder appears, there is a concerted effort by the original contract holder to sabotage that bid. If the original contract holder perceives that rebidding at a higher price is possible, they engineer a competitive bidder to bid the same contract. The original bidder knowing that the new bidder has no chance gets away with raising the contract amount, even though providing less quality services and ignoring customer complaints. Contract holders should not hold the city captive. The city must reward good service and fine for bad services.

11. Marathon Planning Department head George Garrett is good at his job. But if you promise to get your AICP, then he must get it. The City Manager should insist. Don't make promises you are not going to keep. That applies to Marathon City Council members too.

12. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Latest economic news shows Middle Keys unemployment still at 8.5%. Normal is in the 3% range. Marathon City Council must take whatever action required to address this issue. Saying this is not our job or we cannot do anything is unacceptable. One thing council must do is ensure the new Walgreen's honors its promise to hire 20 locals. They made that promise at the Marathon Planning Commission meeting.

13. The City of Marathon cannot, should not, try to solve every problem big or small. Risk and liability are not just words. I know there will be some shocked that I add this as a resolution, but sometimes you got to go with a feeling.

This fruit stand fiasco is ludicrous. I don't love FDOT, but give me a break. The fruit stand people have been given some prime spots better than where they are now. Why is there such obstinacy? Just because you have most people behind you does not give license to push the city into increasing risk and liability. Like I said, the city cannot make exceptions to everyone who asks politely with voters behind them. There is a time for responsibility. What is the fruit stand really doing is cheating us the taxpayers. ECMC even has the audacity to ask for more funding from the county that has to cut its budget, or we all doing down the toilet. This whole thing makes me uncomfortable. The Fruit Stand and ECMC and CAMP have finally turned me from avid supporter to a concerned taxpayer.

The county and the city need to wake up and smell the coffee. Popular things are not necessarily a slam-dunk. Some council members need to use their brains and learn that sometimes "no" is not a bad word. I know, this is really unusual for me. I thought that I would never see a non-profit not deserving of support and praise. I woke up, realized the economy is not stable, and temporarily every dollar is precious.  Safety is more important than fruit stands, CAMP, and ECMC. Besides a failed school system needs to get back to basics not support all the extra-curricular activities. Let's get our priorities straight. Just say no.

14. The City of Marathon spends an inordinate amount of money on paper. Other Florida cities of similar size have moved to iPads or their ilk to reduce costs significantly. Actually, the council has five laptops, one for each councilmember. Why are they not used?

What about City Hall? I love the staff; they can do no wrong in my eyes. Sorry, but this paper thing takes precedence. City Hall is overwhelmed in paper even with a computer on every desk. What part of electronic paperwork don’t we all understand?   ~Publisher@MarathonJournal.US

As the Moon wanes further, it points the way to Venus, Antares, and newly arrived Mercury.

[TV says gas soon to be $5] Well, there you go. Everyone knows that everything that you hear on TV is a cold, hard fact.

[Sloan on Suicide] When your dreams turn to dust -- vacuum.

[Stand up comedy] So you think you're smarter than Einstein? http://bit.ly/uuvMk

[Blind Faith] To most Christians, the Bible is like a software license. Nobody actually reads it. They just scroll to bottom and click "I agree."

[No central sewers from Cudjoe Key through Big Pine Key] Let me tell you something, if the stinking junta thinks their going to get away with this scam and stick it to the folks from BPK to Cudjoe while pampering the rich and infamous elsewhere they better prepare for trouble.  Or is it that the developers are sighting our area for The Big Build Up and using the sewer game to drive us out? We are talking a major skirmish here, folks!  

[Year in Review] One of the funniest things to happen in the Florida Keys in 2010. http://bit.ly/9FePD6   

[Gas] Of course gas will be $5 a gallon, but a lot sooner than in one year. Europe pays a lot more than that now, and the more high MPG vehicles we buy the higher the gas goes to keep that all mighty profit margin. Food is next as is cloths and anything needed.

The Brussels Sprouts Whopper now on sale at Burger King in the UK. Surprisingly, it's not going over too well. Yuk!

[Sloan on Suicide] How do you know that it is not in your god's plan for you to kill yourself? Besides, we all know you are too much of a pussy to really follow through with it. You've teased us with the possibility many times but never deliver. I'll still be watching just in case.  ~arthur_phrain@hotmail.com

[Medical Privacy] I think the nurse who commented that HIPAA was created by lawyers so that they can sue and make more money has it backward. I believe those who constructed HIPAA did that so they would not be sued - on the basis that every one in healthcare is responsible for maintaining patient privacy. Look around any healthcare facility and you will find reminders to staff everywhere; in elevators, on stairwells, etc., they say conversations regarding patients should not be discussed anywhere or with anyone who does not have direct contact or who is not involved in any patient's care. It's a way for the medical community to protect themselves, as long as everyone pays attention and adheres to the law.

If you don't believe in HIPAA and you're in healthcare, you might want to think about what is more important, your license to practice, or your decision that disclosure of particular information is not important to someone. Because then, you are assuming things about peoples’ lives and their wish that certain information may not be revealed to anyone but their doctor. That's a lot of assuming on anyone's part, don't you think?

[Revisiting Gastesi's idea to put sewers out to bid]  The idea sound good until you consider that Gastesi is going to give that bid to one of his Miami buddies.  Yes, it may not cost residents as much as it would now, but how much would it cost us to use the service?  Plus, you would only have one choice of provider, and that would be the company that owns your sewers.
 
I don't deny that Gastesi has some good ideas, but if it involves him having the power to hire his Miami buddies, forget it, the homeowners in Monroe County would get the rotten end of the deal.  Happy New Year to all.

My one regret in life is that I am not someone else. ~Woody Allen

In this beautiful celestial still life composed with a cosmic brush, dusty nebula NGC 2170 shines at the upper left. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined by other bluish reflection nebulae, a compact red emission region, and streamers of obscuring dust against a backdrop of stars. Like the common household items still life painters often choose for their subjects, the clouds of gas, dust, and hot stars pictured here are also commonly found in this setting - a massive, star-forming molecular cloud in the constellation Monoceros. The giant molecular cloud, Mon R2, is impressively close, estimated to be only 2,400 light-years or so away. At that distance, this canvas would be about 15 light-years across.

[Top Gear stars caused religious row after dressing up in burkas]  I missed that one.  I'll have to catch the rerun, I love that show.  I laughed my tail off when they had to drive through the American south with gay-love and anti-NASCAR stuff painted on their cars.  Those guys are brutal to each other, they must be best friends.

Cold damage on palms. Info from the Monroe County Extension Service/ University of Florida. http://bit.ly/cHu2es

[Marathon and Big Pine Animal Shelters]  Has anyone in the Big Pine area noticed that the bid is for operating the Marathon shelter or the Big Pine shelter separately as well as operating both shelters together?  Is this to facilitate the FKSPCA's desire to take over Big Pine only and have jurisdiction in the entire Lower Florida Keys?  According to Commissioner Neugent the FKSPCA has indicated to him it is not interested in permanently assuming the Middle Keys contract, which covers both Marathon and the Big Pine Key shelter and services.  Is this why the County has revised bid provisions allowing for the shelters to be run separately?  If so, why wasn't SUFA allowed to do the same thing?

[Randy Acevedo] Someone ought to put this cretin out of his and our misery. ~inthekeyz@live.com

[Cougars cause almost a sevenfold increase in human death since 1990] It’s the same problem as always, too many more people now. These people venture further out and all those places that used to be free of humans and pristine are now ever more accessible. It’s the same problem in the Keys and pretty much anywhere else. With 7 billion and counting, humans are now eclipsing even cockroaches in sheer mass.

Unfortunately there is no way out of this. Other than a quick reduction of the population, hopefully by birth control not war or disease, we'll just eat through the planet's resources like rats, and than die of starvation with little left behind.

If gas goes to $5 what's going to happen to our non-unionized minimum wage economy?  Grandma's money won't last forever.

To all the National Guard and everyone serving across the world, Happy New Year! Citizen Soldiers, we wait for you. http://bit.ly/fRPwV9

[More Bar Wisdom] I saw a friend from work. He tells me my ex is dressed to kill. I said she cooked that way too!

Ring out the old, ring in the new with George Harrison's Ding Dong, Ding Dong. Who knew? http://bit.ly/26eHG9

[Free Will] My New Year's Resolution: I will believe in free will. Free will: A thought pattern contrived to initiate a self. If by an absolute, then free will cannot exist. If by interactions, then free will is just a chemical or mechanical reaction to input. If by pure mental thought (as in a computer) it never can generate.

Rarely seen Space Shuttle activities. Slide Show

NATIONAL POLITICS

Unemployment claims have fallen below the magic number of 400,000 for the first time since this mess started..

[Iran assassinations and cyber attack]  Some press reports suggest that the cyber worm Stux­net is an Israeli weapon. They point to Tel Aviv's prowess in computer science, especially in highly secretive groups like Unit 8200, the Israeli mili­tary's legendary cyber outfit. They point to some code in Stuxnet that might sug­gest the date on which a prominent Jewish businessman was executed in Tehran in 1979, or the name "Myrtus," which could be construed as a refer­ence to Esther, the biblical Jewish queen of Persia who stopped a genocide, and so on. The argument is that the Israelis are trying to subtly let the Iranians know it was them, not so subtly that they claim it publicly, but enough so the Iranians get to know to stay away from all that.

What's clear is that major resources went into Stuxnet's develop­ment. Microsoft estimates that building the virus likely took 10,000 man-days of labor by top-rank software engineers. Unlike most of the worms and viruses that wreak havoc on computers, this one was not designed to spread far and wide, doing damage wherever it landed. It is structured to target a specific set of devices manufactured only in Finland and Iran that are used to determine the speed at which the centrifuges rotate. If that speed is not modulated perfectly, vibrations make the machines break down, as indeed they have.

According to the antivirus firm Sy­mantec, who has pulled Stuxnet apart like a strand of DNA, all that incredibly complex information was built into it before it ever infected the Iranian system. Whoever developed Stuxnet probably had the same types of software and centrifuges on which to run tests. That's expensive, that's millions of dollars.

Because the Iranian nuclear program's computers are not connected to the Internet, the worm couldn't have been introduced to them online. It's presumed to have come from a USB thumb drive that the user may or may not have known was infected: Stuxnet was designed to do nothing to computers that didn't connect with the control mechanisms it targeted. And then, depending on where it found itself, Stuxnet was supposed to self-destruct.

Different components of the virus have dif­ferent "time to live" mechanisms. A USB key inserted into a newly infected com­puter can't carry the worm for more than 21 days. After that, it disappears. The worm is programmed to quit exploiting one particular weakness in Microsoft's software after June 1, 2011. No one’s ever seen or heard of a worm that limited its spread. One explanation, of course, is that the creators of the virus hoped it would self-destruct before it was discovered. Another, however is that the creators and their governments hoped to limit their liability if they were ever exposed.

Obama is awful, etc. (Ed: This is all I could make out someone’s unintelligible submission)

[Net Neutrality] Wasn’t the point of Net Neutrality to prevent the local Internet Provider, the “last Mile” service provider, from blocking applications and content and such? Up until now the internet has been like a big pipe; you can get anywhere and they can get to you and once connected you two can send and receive whatever you want. 

Net Neutrality was to prevent the Last Mile ISPs, many of whom are the only option, from blocking apps, content and services. They want you to have to pay a fee or subscribe to an “added value” service.  The idea of Net Neutrality was to prevent these ISPs from moving you to a bundled services model where you have to pay extra to run someone else’s app or receive your ISP’s competitor’s content. 

Then I read FTR’s post yesterday and he describes a scenario where Obama’s FTC is forcing the ISPs to do the things that I thought Net Neutrality was trying to prevent? Huh?  So can you run that by me again FTR? Am I missing something here? I see FTR’s complaint that this is being instituted through rule changes not law change. But, hey, that’s politics. It’s nothing new and we have seen it from both parties when they are in power.

[Obama Sucks] Retired Marine Corps drill sergeant and actor R. Lee Ermey took an opportunity to rail against the Obama administration during a Dec. 10 appearance on Roe & Roeper’s Miracle on Indianapolis Blvd. Holiday Extravaganza live broadcast to benefit the USO. http://bit.ly/iexLLJ

Armored car sales jump as drug war batters Mexico. $120,000 for an armored car! Can't afford an armored car? How about a $ 4,000 leather jacket, capable of stopping bullets fired from a small handgun or a $300 bullet proof vest?

[Obama spending] That's almost correct, he ran on hope and change, not specific amounts of money that he was going to spend.  In fact, when he ran he said that Obamacare would not cost additional money.  HA HA, on us.  That's why the last election went against him and his policies.  What a catastrophe, trillions in additional debt, and he still has supporters. If you voted for the guy, you are getting what you wanted, minus the hope and change.

[False]  “Thousands of blacks fought in the Confederate Army” was found in Virginia history textbooks. Also it was written that there were two black battalions serving under Andrew Jackson, who was dead at the time. The author said she found the information for the textbook online.

[Party of No] As my good friend Thomas Sowell reiterates, economists are the real "party of no" they keep saying that their is no such thing as a free lunch--and politicians keep on getting elected by promising free lunches. It is amazing how people will constantly seek to defray their own shortcomings or sheer laziness onto folks who spend their days doing things that only make the world better in the long run unless we all retain the philosophy of the Luddites. Capitalism has a lot of warts, but common sense should tell most thinking people that it is the only viable method that has ever produced wealth for the most people. The world is littered with fallen countries that have attempted to prove otherwise. People continue to believe in the snake oil rhetoric of the free lunchers and I don't think that will ever change.

[Democracy] I believe Gandhi is the only person who knew about real democracy - not democracy as the right to go and buy what you want, but democracy as the responsibility to be accountable to everyone around you. Democracy begins with freedom from hunger, freedom from unemployment, freedom from fear, and freedom from hatred. To me, those are the real freedoms on the basis of which good human societies are based. ~Vandana Shiva

Homeless do want to be homeless! I guarantee you that if I was broke and homeless I would get a night job doing dishes in any restaurant (no one goes hungry working in a restaurant) and a day job too. I’d sleep under a bridge or in a appliance box in the mangroves for a couple of weeks while saving every penny I had. There’d be no spending on booze, cigarettes, lotto or drugs (by the way, you never see rich people buying lotto tickets because it prays on the dreams of the poor and ignorant). In less than one month I would have enough to rent a small room or buy a cheap van where I cold sleep.

Obama and Hillary are the most admired people in America followed by Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama -- in that order

[From the Right] It certainly is no surprise that I have precious little fondness for Mr. Obama, nor is it a surprise that I hold his political beliefs and practices in very low regard. But I’ll confess that I held a certain amount of grudging respect for his apparent total devotion to the liberal progressive agenda. His actions in furtherance of his agenda were ruthless and most of his accomplishments have been as a result of political maneuvers in total disregard to the lofty promises he made during his presidential campaign. He has shown us that he scorns precedent, custom, and history. He had convinced me that he was a true believer in the liberal/progressive agenda. He had convinced me that he was a zealot. I find that I must have some measure of respect for anyone who holds that depth of dedication to a cause that they consider to be righteous.  Until very recently I held a modicum of respect for Mr. Obama. But now Mr. Obama is revealing to us that he is nothing more than another two bit politician who is only interested in building, exercising and keeping power. Recently Mr. Obama declared that he has “learned his lesson” in his recent “shellacking” in the November election (press conference 11/4).  The message is explicit; he is telling us that he is prepared to subvert his deeply held beliefs in order to “get along.” Mr. Obama is abandoning his leftist precincts and he has turned right, heading for the center. Who knows, perhaps even right of center. What’s next, the Family Palin over nighting in the Lincoln Bedroom? Or maybe movie nights with Glenn Beck? How about golfing with Rush Limbaugh? That, I’d like to see. Frankly, I’m very pleased with his perfidy. First it is expositive of his character. Plus I’m certain that his cynical triangulation political strategy will provide a temporary boost to our national welfare.  But if I were a liberal I’d really be pissed and disillusioned. If I were a liberal, his actions and words would be a very painful epiphany for me. The liberals were terribly infatuated with him. Neither conservative nor liberal should put any trust whatsoever in this crass and deeply flawed man.

(Part II) My Deer Friends, we really should show respect for the 111^th Congress. The 111th is the first Congress since Mr. Obama took office. The 111th Congress boasted a Democrat majority in both the House and Senate. During the 111^th Congress a progressive Democrat has been our President. They are a marvelous team, they’ve done a smashing job --of spending money. They have smashed our economy. The 111^th was a record breaker: they accumulated more debt in just two years than the total of our first 100 Congresses combined. Cis Boon Bah, Yea Liberal Team!

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Thursday December 30, 2010

Wednesday December 29, 2010

(Ed: Today’s snow covered palms banner is from B. Thanks B.)

Here's a fireplace to snuggle around on these cold Keys nights. http://fauxfire.com/#

It is never too late to be who you might have been.

[Sloan] Suicide: Sloan is often writing about suicide, contemplating his own or that of family and friends. I think that 2011 shall be the year I will put him on suicide watch. Bring your own popcorn.
 
If I thought someone was suicidal, I would not take glee in or make public sport out of it. I would try to speak with the person one-on-one, and how he/she responded would determine how I proceeded. If no small children were involved, I would not bring in the authorities, but would lay all the cards I saw on the table and leave it for him/her to decide what to do. The holiest man I have known in this life, the federal judge for whom I clerked out of law school, took his own life. My brother killed himself last spring, shocking his second wife’s family and many of their friends. There was nothing about suicide in the four novels that fell out of me. They were about how to live fully on this world. Yes, I frequently talk of not wanting to be on this planet any longer, and I still feel that way. However, I know the karma for taking my own life would be horrific and that seriously tempers my thinking. What worries me day and night is constant terror that unwittingly I will do something that screws up God’s plan for me – suicide in the spiritual sense. The person who wrote the popcorn comment did so with a mean spirit and just might have committed spiritual suicide.
 
Click on this link to see the rest of this "literature & suicide" post: goodmorningfloridakeys.com.

The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.  ~Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), Portuguese navigator

I loved the post saying the homeless wanting to be homeless. Not a lot of people have enough nerve to post that. I agree.  

[We don't choose our parents, genes or place of our birth]  For all you remember, you may have filled out the order yourself while waiting your turn for a place on this planet.

[No central sewers for 10,000 homes in the Cudjoe Regional District] After praising the incorporated cities of Marathon and Key Largo on their central sewer work, the DCA admonished the County for its lack of progress county-wide. The DCA noted that while the County had contributed monies for the Key Largo wastewater system, upgraded the Hawk’s Cay facility to serve the approx. 1,971 edu’s on Duck Key, and completed construction of the Big Coppitt wastewater facility (to serve approx. 1,800 edu’s in the extreme lower keys such as Shark Key), the County was not positioned to complete the major wastewater systems needed County-wide.

 
The DCA recommended that due to the $180 million dollar Cudjoe system funding deficit (affecting the approx. 10,000 edu’s from Cudjoe Key through Big Pine Key, with a proposed connection fee at a whopping $23,000 per household), Monroe County should, “designate the [Cudjoe Regional] area as a non-service area and take steps to notify residents of their responsibility to upgrade existing septic systems and package plants and develop an enforcement program in conjunction with the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Protection”.         

 
Perhaps it’s time to revisit Roman Gastesi’s ideas of sending the central sewer projects out for bids to companies who would build, operate, and maintain the sewers as privatized systems.

[Homeless want to be] Most homeless people are like stray cats. You can take them in, wash and feed them, but they’ll leave as soon as they can. Most homeless people are mentally screwed up and feel better outside and homeless. I had my own homeless person for about eight years. He would come to me for his needs and leave when sated.

The public are swine; advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill-bucket.  ~George Orwell

[Hydroponic Garden] Build a low-cost vertical soilless system for home garden. http://bit.ly/deWH9M

Get health alerts from Johns Hopkins. http://www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/

[Howl] This is my copy of Ginsberg’s Howl and its dedication page. I was so influenced by the poem that I’ve kept it since 1963. I wanted to be a beatnik.

[Doctor who?] "Dr." Berlyn Aussieahshowna, 37, was arrested in Boise, Idaho, in November and charged with practicing medicine without a license after she convinced at least two women to let her fondle their breasts under the guise that she was performing a breast "exam." According to police investigators, Aussieahshowna is neither a doctor nor even Berlyn Aussieahshowna. She is Kristina Ross, and is not even a biological female, although she was identified in a 2004 arrest as a male-to-female transsexual. Authorities were puzzled why the two women were duped since both times, "Dr." Aussieahshowna performed her "consultations," including the exams, in bars.

Timelapse of the December 2010 blizzard. http://vimeo.com/18213768

All Things God

All things dull and ugly,
All creatures short and squat,
All things rude and nasty,
The Lord God made the lot.
Each little snake that poisons,
Each little wasp that stings,
He made their brutish venom.
He made their horrid wings.

All things sick and cancerous,
All evil great and small,
All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made them all.

Each nasty little hornet,
Each beastly little squid--
Who made the spikey urchin?
Who made the sharks? He did!

All things scabbed and ulcerous,
All pox both great and small,
Putrid, foul and gangrenous,
The Lord God made them all.

Alcohol troubleshooting guide for New Year’s Eve. Keep this with you for reference.

[Homeless Court] A new kind of court helps homeless and street people get a fresh start. Anything to help a growing situation nationwide is good. This could help here. http://bit.ly/hpnHFj

[Hates Homeless] Don't be so quick to judge someone until you walk a mile in their shoes.

[Sloan] I used to think Sloan was full of it, but after reading what he has to say, for quite a while, I have become quite impressed. Keep up the good work Sloan.

Often suspected but now confirmed.  The Ed thinks he is a god. (Editor: Bless you, my child. Go in peace.)

To the person who hates the homeless, you are one layoff away from joining them so be grateful that, but for the grace of God, go you.

[Animal Shelter] This photo is just before FKSPCA takes over Marathon Florida Keys Shelter . Are they still alive? My new kitten, Tiger, came from this shelter while SUFA was in charge. I got to be very familiar with the cat sanctuary in the back of the facility. I learned about each cat there. None were sick, vicious, feral, or unadoptable. I fear that they no longer have the freedom and protection of their sanctuary. I have a bad feeling even if any are still alive.

That is what FKSPCA is all about. Their policies are not no-kill, not conducive to Marathon resident’s desires, not friendly to anyone stopping unannounced to visit old friends, and never should have been allowed to serve the county anywhere.

The only viable solution is the kind of no-kill, friendly, educational, and home to all viable life animal or not. I ask again for proof that all my cat friends including the dogs I grew to love are still alive. I know for sure that many were ripped from the only loving home available to them. A community is reflective of how it treats our animal friends. SHARK cannot take over soon enough.  Still, we all want to know where all of our animal friends ended up. Are they even still alive – dated photos show the truth.  ~Publisher@MarathonJournal.US

[Gas] I heard on TV news that in one year gas will be $5 per gallon.

[Randy Acevedo] A three-judge panel will consider another appeal. Acevedo hopes the court will determine there was insufficient evidence to convict him and rule that Circuit Court Judge Mark Jones failed to properly instruct the jury. His lawyer will argue that the official misconduct statute under which Acevedo was convicted is unconstitutionally vague.

[Long winded Tomes] Many of us who read the CT do have an attention span of over thirty seconds and do enjoy reading some of the more evolved contributions of some CT patrons.  I suggest that those of us who do, on occasion, write something lengthy and of intellectual merit, do not stoop to trying to satisfy the lowest common denominator and write-on without artificial limits.  Those who may have a lack of attention may simply read the first four lines of any post and move on and never, potentially, learn something new. Govern yourself, not us.

Arcimboldo was a 16^th century court artist who painted for his royal patron, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. He was the founder of surrealism which didn’t really catch on until 3 centuries later. This painting, Water, uses more than 60 animals for its effect.

[All HIPPA is is a law passed by lawyers so they can sue and make more money] The nurse’s statement demonstrates how lightly the profession views our medical privacy. They think it’s a all about money not privacy.

[Sky] Stick your head out around 3 a.m., and the waning Moon guides your way to Saturn.

NATIONAL POLITICS 

[Iran assassinations and cyber attack] The real damage to the Iranian nuclear program was done by Stuxnet, the most sophisticated com­puter worm ever detected and analyzed, one targeting hardware as well as soft­ware, and a paradigm of covert cyber ­weapons to come.

"Stuxnet is the start of a new era," says Stewart Baker, for­mer general counsel of the U.S. National Security Agency. "It's the first time we've actually seen a weapon created by a state to achieve a goal that you would otherwise have used multiple cruise missiles to achieve."

Tehran had major prob­lems bringing new centrifuges online throughout 2009. The first 4,000 already installed at the Natanz facility contin­ued to spin, but the next 5,000 were beset by delays. The worst problems came in an array of centrifuges known as A-26, which Iran began installing in late 2008 around the time Stuxnet was sent on its mission.

In the late summer of 2009, half the functioning A-26 cen­trifuges had to be pulled out of service. At the turn of this year 1,000 more simply broke down. This may have been the "limited num­ber" Ahmadinejad was talking about. Not all of the breakdowns can be attributed to Stuxnet. Spies from Israel and probably elsewhere have long been involved in the sabotage of high-tech materials and components for the Iranian nuclear program that Tehran has had.

Hawaii’s new governor wants to release more of Obama’s birth records to squelch the “Birthers” complaint that he’s not an American once and for all.

Top Gear stars cause religious row after dressing up in burkas on Boxing Day TV special. One of my favorite ploys was in their US special, where they all wrote offensive things on their cars and drove through Alabama, where they promptly got stoned by some rednecks, and chased out of a gas station parking lot, before hurriedly washing their cars off.  I love the Brit version of this show. http://bit.ly/fKq5hO

[Party of No] Last year the current administration deported more illegal aliens then any other year in American history. Republicans responded, "No." Last year more companies were fined for hiring Illegal aliens then ever before. Republicans responded, "No." Last year a record number of illegal criminals were deported. Republicans responded, "No."

Why do they call them the Party of No they wonder"? The answer is because they even say no to reality.

They did say yes to one issue, however. Dick Cheney was convicted of bribery and Halliburton offered to pay the over $30 million settlement for him. Of course that was a resounding, "Yes" And the TV cable elite network never mentioned it once.

If Clinton would have had a conviction like that against him and a Clinton associate would have paid the bill for him FOX News would have had that as a headline for months. Yet, not a peep from them.

Social Security cards up until the 1980s expressly stated the number and card were not to be used for identification purposes. Since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, it became convenient to use it anyway and the message was removed.
 
Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised that participation in the program would be voluntary, but it is no longer voluntary.

That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the program. Now it’s 7.65% on the first $90,000 and employer matches the amount.

That the money the participants elected to put into the program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year, no longer tax deductible.

That the money the participants put into the independent trust fund rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program, and, under Johnson the money was moved to the General Fund and spent

That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income. Under Clinton & Gore Up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxed

Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent Trust Fund and put it into the general fund so that Congress could spend it? It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically controlled House and Senate.

Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding? The Democratic Party.

Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities? The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the tie-breaking deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the  US

Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants? Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments. The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into it.

Then, after violating the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away and Congress gives themselves 100% retirement for only serving one term.

[Veteran's Golf]  It's about time we did something for these guys! http://bit.ly/ecFI8g

[Mossad has established a record 50 years long of targeted assassinations ] It’s a lousy way to make a living, but I'm sure glad somebody has the intestinal fortitude to take it on.

Obama vs Reagan and comparing their economic recoveries. To the left is a graph comparing the two economic recoveries between President Obama and Reagan. Also see You can't tax the rich enough to pay off the US deficit. Also check out what happens when the Government taxes money from Peter to pay Paul. 44 cents on every dollar is lost. Unbelievable.

This from NCPA in article titled Hiding the Cost of Government Leads to Bigger Government. "Congress hides from voters a huge part of the cost of government: the hidden costs of taxes, which include lost income and jobs.  Failing to account for these costs creates a bias in favor of bigger government and a less efficient tax code, says Christopher J. Conover, a research scholar with the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research at Duke University.

Everyone from President Reagan's economic advisor Martin Feldstein to President Obama's economic advisor Jonathan Gruber agree that this hidden cost of taxation is very real and very large.

Obama is not spending our money “any way he wants to”. He is spending it the way he promised us he would if he was elected. Have you forgotten already?

Obama and Hillary are the most admired people in America according to Gallop.

[Tax Cuts] We borrow money from China so our rich can keep theirs.

New item at Home Depot

[Popularity Poll] Who is the second most admired man by Americans? If you guessed GW Bush you were right. He beat out Clinton, the Pope and Mr. Carter. Mr. Obama is number 1. Guess who is the second most admired woman in America? It’s Sarah Palin. She beat out Michelle Obama and Oprah. Hillary is the woman most admired by Americans. At least that’s what Gallup said.

War on drugs gives way to the dangerous new face of Narco-Politics. The DEA has expanded to 87 offices in 63 countries. The war on drugs must cost a trillion too.  http://aol.it/hHexUW

[From the Right] Critical mess: Have you noticed how prickly our liberal critics have become? Yesterday a poster became incensed because I posted an opinion contrary to his opinion on net neutrality. According to the critic I am a dummy lacking reading comprehensions skills. In all fairness he may be right. I haven’t been tested in more than half a century. But he seems more interested in insulting me than in the issue. That, my Deer Friends, that is the reflexive posture of a liberal who is losing a debate.  The irrefutable fact is that the FCC has moved to seize the power to regulate the internet. They did it without legislative approval and against the advice of many legislators. The FCC’s governing board has 5 politically appointed members; two were in opposition to the new role of the FCC. The three Democrat members voted for net neutrality.  But, it is bizarre that all 5 agreed that the internet was not “broken”, they all agreed that it does not need to be fixed. They all agreed that the net was flourishing. The new rules are strictly prospective in nature. They ignored the sensible historic colloquial dicta: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Just what the hell is “net neutrality?” Up to now the Internet has been equally available to all who use it. The FCC wants to limit and channel net resources allowing corporations such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to become "gatekeepers” reducing bandwidth to some while increasing it to others—a totally commercial approach to what now is a fair-access-for-all system. The political appointees of the FCC will decide who are the “gatekeepers” and those same political appointees of the FCC will allocate bandwidth. They will decide usage fees and the attendant policies. The costs will favor some over others. You may pay a lot more for your internet use than does your neighbor.  Analysts and broadband companies of all sizes have told the FCC that new rules are likely to have the perverse effect of inhibiting capital investment, deterring innovation, raising operating costs, and ultimately increasing consumer prices. Others maintain that the new rules will kill jobs. By moving forward with Internet rules anyway, the FCC is not living up to its promise of being data driven in its pursuit of mandates—i.e., listening to the needs of the market. Here’s something else to think about. You should know that their equally strident voices urging the imposition of net neutrality. But there was no public airing of the issues. The FCC hearings were behind closed doors (sounds familiar). And so, now we contemplate yet another set of rules from Team Obama that have not been debated by our legislators. Once again Team Obama pursues rule by fiat.  If this comes to pass we will effectively have yet another czar driven regulatory board. Scores of legislators, Democrat and Republican, have spoken out against net neutrality. Only about 1 in 5 likely voters support the issue, most, like me, fear political intrusion and political control of the web. You’ve got to admit the actions of the Democrat controlled FCC are suspect. Still Team Obama soldiers on. Fortunately, the issue will be reviewed by a Republican controlled House of Representatives soon, very soon. Also, there is no doubt that the matter will finally be subjected to strenuous court review.

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Wednesday December 29, 2010

Tuesday December 28, 2010

[Howard Livingston and the Mile Marker 24 Band] Happy New Year! I can’t believe another year is coming to an end. Wow, where does the time go? This is always a time for me to reflect back on all the things that have occurred within the past twelve months.  It’s been a wonderfully exciting year but also an emotional one, with Cynderella and I both losing our moms. Our hearts go out to so many of our friends who have also lost a loved one this year. There were a lot of us.

The weather in the Keys is a bit chilly today, however, the sun is shining brightly over the bay and somehow it warms the soul. These nights in the 50s are the perfect excuse to build a fire by the ocean and put on a rarely worn sweatshirt. I’m not going to complain because I know many folks reading this are freezing with ice and snow surrounding them. Our cold snap is just about over and we are heading for 75 degrees by Friday.

Friday, December 31st New Year’s Eve Party Speaking of Friday, that’s New Year’s Eve and we would like to invite you to a party. It’s all happening at the Sugarloaf KOA Resort at mile marker 20 on Sugarloaf Key. There will be free champagne and you know we will be firing up the old Johnson outboard and making margaritas. We take the stage at 8:30 PM and party into 2011. It’s free and open to the public. So if you are in the area we would love to see you. Also, if you don’t feel like driving home, do what I do and stay at the park. They have wonderful trailers for rent. Call 305-745-3549 for details. 

2011 Meet Me In The Keys Getaway May 12 through May 15^th http://cwp.marriott.com/eywmc/meetme/

[Mosquito Control] Man, what is the big deal about this Mosquito District? Aren't they just bug exterminators? How many employees do you need to kill bugs? And did I read that someone makes over $100k a year to kill bugs? What's up with that? Couple of guys with trucks driving around spraying. Couple of guys with boats spraying and an airplane spraying. Simple. Are you people in the Keys nuts? 

Free Pilates Aero exercise machine with instructional DVDs. Classified Ads > Free

Don’t like when people use your cup at work? Pull the plug, place it on your keychain, and voila!

[Homeless] I don’t have any feeling or sympathy for the homeless. They want to be homeless so why should I care? The only thing I support is public bathrooms so they don't crap in the bushes and they clean themselves on the rare occasion.

[Sloan] Today's howl includes some mention of the movie HOWL now playing at Tropic Cinema in Key West, which is about the criminal trial of the publisher of Allen Ginsberg's poem HOWL on grounds that it was indecent, obscene, pornographic. However, my including the movie in today's post was just a convenient way to drag back into the fray again a poet's perspective of The Old Man and the Sea as a suicide note, and the burning at the state of a poet disguised as a Key West High School teacher as a southernmost point replay of "Dead Poets Society" - a rape of the feminine. You can read the whole howl by clicking on this link: goodmorningkeywest.com.
 
Here's a sampling:  "What I have not seen yet in anything reported on this beleaguered KWHS teacher, whom I do not know, is what level of learning his students are displaying, versus the level of learning being displayed by other KWHS teachers’ students. I would think the School Board and the School Superintendent would be really keen to know if this teacher’s methods are clinically proving superior, average or inferior. I would think that would be their first inquiry, and it seems not to have been their inquiry at all. It seems they are hung up in their Puritan paradigm. It looks to me that this might be on par with open Bible readings or prayer readings in public schools. The outrage many are expressing over this teacher’s methods sure looks to me to be religious-based. If I were this teacher’s lawyer, I would be talking to him, and to the School Board and School Superintendent, about a federal lawsuit challenging the religious motive. I might compare it to putting the Ten Commandments on the wall in classrooms. I might compare it to the Spanish Inquisition. And to the Salem witch trials. Yeah, it might end up going nowhere, the court might throw it out. Even so, this case is so important that it should be litigated to air out the issues publicly, call the community to account, make the critics admit what really is driving them, and to penetrate their double-talk about wanting their students to do better in a separation of church and state atmosphere – only when it suits the School Board and School Superintendent."

[No Library Card Required] Web site linking 10,000 libraries world wide. If it’s not here, it doesn’t exist. http://www.worldcat.org/

I wanted to say thanks to the editor and everyone else at the Coconut Telegraph for all their work this year putting it out each and every day for all of us to enjoy. A lot of people bitch and moan for what seems like everything, but the CT is one of the things that helps make my day. (Ed; Thank you my son, you shall go to heaven.)

The Holy Comp Plan is not the Bible, nor is it the 10 Commandments.  It is not written in stone (certainly not on 2 stone tablets), and it was not delivered from above.  The Comp Plan is not the be-all, end-all, final-word; it is nothing more than a guiding document.

The Comp Plan is a never-ending work in progress, it is forever evolving and will continue to require modifications based upon the ever changing needs of the people and environment which it represents and protects.  Many of the changes needed to the Comp Plan have been, are, and will be in the future, based upon the changing State Laws which supersede local ordinances. The fact that the Comp Plan is now in a million dollar update process only proves these points.

For Commissioner Murphy to equate the Comp Plan with the Bible belittles and insults all those of faith, and shows little understanding of what the Comp Plan is -- and is not.

If Commissioner Murphy wants to read from a bible written in stone, perhaps she should start with “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” or perhaps for all those days she sanctimoniously chastises her constituents as “you people”, the following would be better reading: "Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you. “

I wish Sloan had been my literature teacher in high school.  I would have gone to class instead of hanging out on corner smoking Marlboros.

Is the New Island Grill showing the UFC event on January 1st?

[Snow in Philly] I just finished talking with my friend in Philly and he said that since early this morning all his wife has done is look through the kitchen window and the snow is nearly waist high. He says that if it gets much worse, he may have to let her in.

[Fat Jersey Lady] A New Jersey resident striving to become the world’s fattest woman got one step closer this holiday season. That’s because her “Christmas dinner” consisted of a 30,000 calorie feast (which included two whole turkeys) that took two hours to eat. Donna Simpson, 46, is already about 650 lbs and is looking to gain 350 more before hitting her goal weight of 1,000 lbs. The single mother-of-two tucked into two 25lb turkeys, two maple-glazed hams, 15lbs of potatoes (10lbs roast, 5lbs mashed), five loaves of bread, five pounds of herb stuffing, four pints of gravy, four pints of cranberry dressing and an astonishing 20lbs of vegetables. After polishing off her enormous main course, she still had room for dessert and ate a ‘salad’ made of marshmallow, cream cheese, whipped cream and cookies. Simpson, who insists she is “healthy,” makes a living by making guest appearances and running a website where people can pay to watch her eat.

We found a husband for her before he exploded. Mr Creosote (Monty Python)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlK62rjQWLk

[Long-Winded Tomes]  The complaint about long posts was 4 sentences and 5 lines.  That's more than you asked others to do.

University of Miami's Big Pine Key Health Fair is back for its 40th anniversary on January 22nd from 9am-2pm at the Methodist and Baptist Churches. Come for a free health screening with services including: eye checkups, skin screening, HIV screening, bone density, blood pressure check, cholesterol check, mental health, neurological issues, male and female exams. Skip long lines on the day of the fair and pre-register on January 8th from 9am-2pm at the Big Pine Key Senior Center (380 Key Deer Blvd.) If you have any questions please contact the Department of Community Service at (305) 243-4898. Bulletin Board

David Maimon of Marathon made the newspapers again. I am sorry to say that you cannot trust anything someone says, when he plays all sides. Councilman Dick Ramsay should beware of a Maimon speaking kindly of a Ramsay “idear”. No so long ago, David was trying his best to dethrone Dick. Maimon provided information all the way from Tallahassee to the streets of Marathon. Ramsay’s Grassy Key metal firehouse may have merit. With Maimon speaking out of both sides of his mouth puts the metal firehouse in question. My advice, Dick, use extreme caution for those who appear to publicly love you.

And now onto some media pitfalls: the Marathon Florida Keys Journal made Mike Puto the so-called Mr. Marathon. Mike appeared to deserve such praise for all that he does. The problem is that anyone can be brought down by one bad choice. Offering money under the table to a candidate at Castaways is that bad choice. Mike Puto is no Mr. Marathon. Mr. Marathon is supposed to be a man of honor publicly and privately. The Journal has high standards, and this media outlet will not be loyal to someone who makes a bad choice. Other media outlets seem okay to perpetuate Puto as this Mr. Marathon myth. Right is right, and wrong is wrong.  ~Publisher@MarathonJournal.US

The worst name for a knockoff cell phone, ever. They're ripping off the Oppo logo.

AA Basher O Basher, you must indeed live in a closeted world. At any given time one can browse the internet and find thousands upon thousands of opinions on an  infinite variety of subjects. On such a broad subject as you are pontificating, common sense should tell you that no one person has the holy grail. For many of us A.A. worked just fine, for others not so good. Most folks are only looking for a way to happily arrest their compulsive addiction with whatever their substance of addiction is, for the majority that is it no more no less. If you don't approve of the method I used to free myself from this curse, well what can I say? If you have a better way, well go for it, but don't tell me I am nuts when I have been happily sober for about 40 years by using A.A. principles. What worked for me probably will never work for you. That may be why you are so bitter at AA. It seems to me it would be crazy to criticize a method that worked for someone else just because it did not work for him.

Interactive Christmas scene. http://bit.ly/hPaWvm

[Lost Gifts] Peter Darcy says he is suing Air Canada because the carrier lost his Christmas gifts. Darcy says he checked his bags at London's Heathrow airport for a flight to Vancouver, B.C. But somewhere between Heathrow and Vancouver the locks on the luggage were broken and the gifts removed. He says he called Air Canada to report the theft of the valuables, but talked to a reservationist in India who seemed unclear on how to report the matter to Canadian police. Darcy says he ended up making the police report himself.

But during repeated calls to the carrier over the next two days, he complains he spent much of the time on hold on Air Canada's automated phone systems. Darcy last week filed suit against Air Canada in small claims court, calculating his losses at $2,643. "I'm as aggrieved at wasting four days of my time as I am of being a victim of the whole thing," Darcy says. "It's quite frustrating."

[Resort: Red Sea Star, Eilat, Israel] The Red Sea is the home to some of the most elaborately colorful sea life on the planet, with a protected marine park that has become a must-see for beach-happy snorkelers and SCUBA divers. In the Israeli resort town of Eilat, this underwater bar is dedicated to this ocean world, some 650 feet off shore and around 15 feet below the surface. Eye-to-eye with the creatures of the coral reef, patrons sip cocktails in an aquatic-themed bar, comfy on sea urchin-printed cushions and romantically lit by both the ocean's waves and star-fish light fixtures. Red Sea Star

[Developers] Hearing people talk about the coming invasion of developers one question pops up, where the hell are you going to move to? You will lose Paradise forever and there's no where else near any civilized country you can go. You will not get jobs in the resort chains because you are locals and considered useless compared to foreign workers.

[DUI] If you get arrested for a DUI you are the dumb-ass that made the decision to get behind the wheel and drive in the first place. Who knows, if you don't drive impaired the life you save might be one of your own loved ones.

[The Chaos Effect] In my gloomier moments I have doubts about free will. None of us chooses to be born. We don't choose our parents, our genes, the place of our birth, the circumstances of our upbringing. Nor did our parents have these choices, or theirs, or theirs--ad infinitum. Each moment of our lives is the outcome of a vast web of causes and effects--determined by physical laws--leading back thousands and millions and billions of years to the big bang, the cosmological event that set everything into motion. None of us chooses any of this, so how free can we be and who else can tell us we have to believe in a God?

[The problem with renters] There, I fixed it.

Musicians we lost In 2010. There aren’t many I’ve ever heard of and that's good.  http://n.pr/eQxGdw

[Email is Private] Let this be an object lesson for jealous spouses and bitter exes everywhere--don't go online if you can't do the time. A Michigan man could face up to five years after using his wife's password to get into her Gmail account. The man broke into his wife's account and discovered that she was having an affair. The couple has since filed for divorce, and he is being charge with a felony, thanks to a Michigan statute usually used for identity theft cases. This is the first time it's been used in a domestic case. "I would guess there is enough gray area to suggest that she could not have an absolute expectation of privacy," lawyer Frederick Lane said.

I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance.  ~Ruben Blades

[Suicide] Sloan is often writing about suicide, contemplating his own or that of family and friends. I think that 2011 shall be the year I will put him on suicide watch. Bring your own popcorn.

Kid hates books for Christmas. I know how he feels, I got sheets this year. http://bit.ly/gWbFUb

I got a sweater for Christmas. I really wanted a screamer or a moaner.

[Who’s on First] This is a story about 4 people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anyone could have.

[Cougars] In the hundred years leading up to 1990, there were 53 recorded cougar attacks on humans in North America, only ten of which were fatal. From 1991 to 2004, there were 49 attacks and ten more deaths. That's almost a sevenfold increase in human death. Other mountain lion-related problems, like pet-killing, have also increased, even in heavily-populated city areas which one would hopefully assume are relatively free of giant man-eating cats. The cougar's status in the species hierarchy has changed significantly over the years. Where once you could get a bounty for killing one, hunting is now strictly controlled, or in the case of California, outlawed altogether. California, coincidentally enough, is also the place that's experienced that sixteen-fold increase in attacks over the last 25 years.

According to some researchers, mankind's cessation of anti-cougar activities has caused the cats to lose their fear of humanity. And really, we shouldn't need researchers to tell us that, if we don't show large predators we pose at least some kind of threat, they're going to learn to think of us as soft, pink, vertical burritos ripe for the snacking.

Mocked meteorologist gets last laugh. http://bit.ly/f8m7Ad

[AA Basher] Dr Feelgood explains the Cult of Alcoholics Anonymous. http://bit.ly/iabsvt  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I miss everyone so much. I hope to see you soon. It’s cold and snowing here in Georgia.

NATIONAL POLITICS

[Iran assassinations and cyber attack] According to for­mer White House counterterrorism and cyber warfare adviser Richard Clarke, at least two countries conducted operations against Iran simultaneously and not necessarily in close coordination. One likely carried out the hits against their three nuclear physicists; the other created and somehow infiltrated the highly sophisticated Stuxnet worm into computers of the Iranian nuclear program.

Clarke strongly suggested Israel and the United States are the likely sources of the attacks. Other analysts suggest that France, Brit­ain, and especially Germany, home of Siemens, which made the software and some of the hardware attacked by the Stuxnet worm, might also be involved.

Israel's covert operations have always been on the violent side. When it comes to strategic murders, the Mossad has established a record 50 years long of "targeted assassinations," often tak­ing out scientists who tried to help its enemies develop weapons of mass destruction. It has carried out hits all over the Middle East and Europe. Iran knows this history well: Israeli intelligence sources, who decline to be named on the record, coyly suggest that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are so convinced the Mossad directed the assassination plots that the Guards are taking extreme measures to protect the man considered next on the hit list: Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a profes­sor of nuclear physics whom the Israelis sometimes call "the Iranian Dr. Strange-love."

What has Obama accomplished in 2 years (from Dec 23). The list of 96 accomplishments is spend, spend, spend.  He is spending your money, anyway he wants to on many wasteful, unneeded programs, many of them Constitutionally questionable.

[Net Neutrality] "The critic actually admits that net neutrality will give the government the power to decide which companies have access to the internet."

FTR lacks basic reading comprehension. I doubt there is any other explanation for his failure to grasp a fairly simple post that I made. My post said nothing of the kind because Net Neutrality rules do not give the government the power to decide which companies have access to the internet.

Affirmative Action explained. It’s accurate, depressing and hilarious all at once. http://bit.ly/hjAoMg

[START Treaty] Robert Gates, the American Secretary of defense and the generals that agree the START Treaty is the right thing because it does not hinder our missile defense abilities at all. No matter how many times the Republicans whine. The real reason the Republicans are against the treaty is to deny Obama another victory for our country. They are committed to regaining control of our country at all costs.

[Warm-ongers] With the faith that these followers believe, it should be classified as a religion. Click here: The Abiding Faith Of Warm-ongers - Investors.com

Sen. Tom Coburn predicts 18% unemployment rate, total destruction of middle class. One of the Senate’s strongest voices against wasteful spending and earmarks, Senator Tom Coburn, again warned against massive and continuous government spending under the Obama Administration. Prompted to give specific predictions about where the US would be if government spending isn’t meaningfully curtailed, Coburn let loose with the specifics. According to Coburn, if the US doesn’t get serious about cutting spending, the US will see an 18% unemployment rate (not including those who’ve stopped looking for work), a decline of GDP by 9%, and the destruction of the US middle class. He also said that the poorest of the poor would be hurt the most.

[From the Right] If you do a little fact checking you will find that Obama’s vaunted program of pursuing employers of illegal aliens is propaganda crap. Team Obama says that they have “raided” 2900 companies. That only means that they have audited the employment records of 2900 companies. It means that agents have decided which employees are illegal (if any). Then the agents levy fines or seize the business. Sounds pretty neat so far. But then you learn that they make no mention of determining if the illegal alien employee has used forged documents to get the job. Next you learn that the fines can be levied by the inspector on the spot. No mention of any judicial review. Then you learn that nearly all the illegal aliens go free. In nearly every case unless the illegal has a violent criminal record, they just walk away, ICE policy requires it. So now the illegal has no job, the welfare office is the next stop.  Consider that they have levied $3,000,000.00 in fines during their little project. BFD, all that means is that the average fine has been only $1,034.48. Please also consider that that Team Obama bragged that some of the fines were huge, and that they have seized businesses. So, by doing a little checking and a little thinking we now know that the average schmuck who employs illegal’s got nothing but a wrist slap. It’s just another cost of doing business. Team Obama has pushed thousands of illegal aliens out of a job. They are not out of a job in Mexico; they’re out of a job in the USA. People who are out of work usually seek public assistance.  On May 28, 2010—Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich (Los Angeles Country) released figures from the Department of Public Social Services showing that in April 2010, $52 million in welfare benefits ($22 million CalWORKs + $30 million in Food Stamps) were issued to parents who reside in the United States illegally and collect benefits for their native-born children in Los Angeles County.  This amounts to approximately 23% of all CalWORKs and Food Stamp issuances in the County. My Deer Friends, that is for one month in Los Angeles County alone. The mind staggers at what the nationwide cost must be. The foregoing was ripped directly from the Los Angeles County web site.  Another source was the New York Times of 6/9/10. Hey Gang, we’ve got to seal our borders. The silly theatrics of Team Obama just are not getting the job done.

(Part II) Critical Mess: Yesterday  critic spoke of “schadenfreude.” That posting was confusing. It is curious that my critic admits that he is possessed by schadenfreude. He tells us that he is anxious to feel pleasure at any suffering that might befall me. And he blames his character flaw on me. How odd, but curiously in character for many of our liberal/progressive friends. Perhaps it’s genetic.  The posting is confusing, but I think that he may have been suggesting that I too was possessed by schadenfreude. If that is so, I urge that poster to tell us specifically why he came to that conclusion. He also accused me of being full of self created warped anger. He said that I am obsessive and vitriolic. Wow, that’s pretty heavy.  But perhaps he does have a point. I am angry that Mr. Obama is attempting to fundamentally change our society. I’m especially angry because of the methods and tactics that he is so callously using to accomplish his goals. I proudly state that I despise his goals. Frankly, I believe that my critic and more Americans should share that anger. I speak my opinions about Mr. Obama and his machinations as often as I can. If I am obsessed by anger, then you must remember that my anger is shared by a substantial majority of Americans who spoke their minds in the recent elections. Even members of Team Obama concede that the election was a referendum on Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama and his Team got their butts kicked. The critical poster also has a point if he believes that my postings are caustic when referring to the machinations of Team Obama. Caustic is a cleansing agent. But, I think that the critic simply wants me to shut up. That’s not likely.

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Tuesday December 28, 2010

Monday December 27, 2010

[Gerry} I am thanking all of you for e-mails, cards, letters, phone call, kind thoughts and prayers.  You are helping me through this. 

[Fault] The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders.

[Fight Junk Mail] Send them a brick. Here's a neat way to get rid of unwanted Christmas junk, or any thing else. Plus it helps support the Post office, and you don't have to pay anything. http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/bulkmailer/

[Privacy] I’m a nurse and don't take HIPPA lightly. All it is is a law passed by lawyers so they can sue and make more money. You are not as important as you think you are and no one cares about your medical records.

[Need tech help - lousy or not] What is Microsoft Script Debugger? Do I need it, how do I control it, can I delete it?  It is continuously popping up. I close the browser and it comes back. I clicked OK to run it, but nothing happened, so I closed it and it it's back again. Googling it only tells me about it, not how to turn it off.

(Lousy tech support: Script usually concerns developers not users [ie Java is a script]. You’re probably using Internet Explorer.  I recommend you update to the latest version of the browser and make sure you have automatic updates enabled.

It might be that your browser needs to update script within outdated software to a newer version of that script. It’s nothing harmful, it’s just trying to coordinate something from your browser to the server [I think]. If that doesn’t work you’re going to have to wait for a good answer or do some boring reading for yourself or try a different browser like Firefox or Chrome. I’d switch browsers. Good luck)

[Sloan] Today's yowling is a double-feature. On the one hand, a report on water board politics revolving around the appointment two Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority seats by incoming Governor Growth (Scott). Of special interest is our own Rose Dell's seat, which the Phillip Goodman wants for himself. Phil and his wife and daughter run the Keys Republican Party. You can read all about that by clicking on this link: goodmorningfloridakeys.com.
 
On the other hand, a look at my country right or wrong vs. Jesus, revolving around a support the troops article in today's Key West Citizen. You can read all about that by clicking on this link: goodmorningkeywest.com.

[More Bar Wisdom] The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.

[Long-winded Tomes] May I make a new year’s suggestion to the long winded posters on CT. Make your point in one or, at most, two sentences. That way people can grasp the idea even while speed reading (that's more than a word a minute for the Keys) and maybe, just maybe, you will gain an audience. Anything over four lines is boring and rambling.

Yuppers, we had a White Christmas.

[Put Citizen Not Serfs in charge of the Keys]  Can we put this up for a county vote? Can we sponsor them to take over county government? What can we really do to save our Keys?

[Instant Karma] A U.S. Marine reservist collecting toys for children was stabbed when he helped stop a suspected shoplifter in eastern Georgia. Best Buy sales manager Orvin Smith told The Augusta Chronicle that the man was seen on surveillance cameras Friday putting a laptop under his jacket at the Augusta store. When confronted, the man became irate, knocked down an employee, pulled a knife and ran toward the door. Outside were four Marines collecting toys for the service branch's Toys for Tots program. Smith said the Marines stopped the man, but he stabbed one of them, Cpl. Phillip Duggan, in the back. The cut did not appear to be severe. The suspect was transported to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken leg, possible broken ribs, multiple contusions and assorted lacerations including a broken nose and jaw. All injuries he sustained when “he fell” trying to run after stabbing the Marine.

The City of Key West wants to change its Charter so that our new Governor can not streamline and make accountable the corrupt Government in place. It makes sense to me.  Why change a good thing for the politicians and bubba's?

[DUI] This is the message I get when I tried the link about my right to refuse to blow. Forbidden. This link is not authorized by Yahoo! If you would like to continue to this link's intended destination at your own risk, click here.

The article about anti gun people was long to read, but probably the most informative article I have ever read on the subject. To anyone with strong feelings about guns on either side of the fence who missed it, it is worth going back and reading. 

[Save our Keys] Can you imagine the amount of time and money developers spend, against the people’s will, to get the hurricane evacuation time reduced to under the 24 hour maximum imposed by the State? If the number falls below 24 hours, the Keys will be open for development once again. The real reason they widened the 18 mile stretch was so they could reduce the evacuation time ("on paper" as most residents don’t evacuation) so they can start developing again. The developers pay for our state legislatures to get elected for that purpose. We never find out about their lobbying until after the fact.

The two other things the developers want to get rid of are the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and the Area of Critical State Concern designation. They are two of the three things that have been protecting our way of life in the Keys even though I think they might have come too late.

Whenever you hear of removing or changing any of those three things don't be swayed by false arguments; the only reason for any of them to change is in order to start development again.

[Teenagers and Sex] In most of the world adulthood starts at puberty for both sexes. If you are old enough to create another life, then you should be mature enough to cope with it. However, in America and some other countries, the word maturity has no definition. Sex runs the world, and parents run their kids, or are supposed to. If the parents are incompetent, so are their offspring. America suffers from terminal immaturity

It's troubling that religious groups are commended for the brain-washing of children. When I was a small child I was so afraid of God’s wrath that I used to hide in the bathroom.

On this date in 1901, entertainer and actress Marlene Dietrich, nee Maria Magdalena Dietrich, was born in Schoneberg, Germany, near Berlin. She became a cabaret singer in the 1920s, worked in silent films, then was typecast as a cabaret singer in the memorable "Blue Angel." She was invited to Hollywood, where her first role was opposite Gary Cooper in "Morocco". She played a prostitute in "Shanghai Express". For a time, she was Hollywood's most highly-paid actress. Dietrich became a U.S. citizen in 1937.A noted critic of Nazism, she toured in arduous conditions with the Allies during WWII and was awarded the U.S. War Department's Medal of Honor in 1947.

She never said, "I von't to be alone." She did say, “I lost my faith during the war and can't believe they are all up there, flying around or sitting at tables, all those I've lost.”

New Year's recipes. Party on! New Year's Recipes | Taste of Home Recipes

[Twunge Tister] Try this tongue twister (I know you will). "I have a sieve full of sifted thistles and a sieve full of unsifted thistles, because I am a thistle sifter." 

Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), practiced this tongue twister as part of the speech therapy conducted by Lionel Logue. "Bertie," as the Duke is known to his family, has much grav­er concerns: he is crippled by a stammer that makes public speaking a devil­ish chore. Logue prescribes a regimen of vocal calisthenics, tongue twisters among them, to improve the mechanics of Bertie's speech. After the abdica­tion of his brother, Edward VIII, in 1936 opens the throne to Bertie, the therapy has geopolitical consequences, permitting the new king to address the nation in live radio broadcasts on the brink of World War II. The tongue twisters were one of the few publicly known details about the real-life Logue's techniques in working with Bertie. Logue's vocal exercises included the sentences "Let's go gathering healthy heath­er with the gay brigade of grand dragoons" and "She sifted seven thick-stalked thistles through a strong thick sieve." As it happens, variants of the "thistle sifter" tongue twister date back to 1831, when American journals reported that this "unutterably curious sentence is frequently used in schools for the correction of stammering."

During the Great Depression my mother and her sister were sent to live with her aunt because her parents couldn’t care for her any longer. Things were so bad that they ate corn syrup (couldn’t afford pancake syrup) that the ants had gotten into.  Aunt Lizzie even had the girls sewing squares together, that they had cut out of newspapers in order to make toilet paper. She said it scratched, but was colorful.

[Sloan] Maybe you read too much into Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. When Paul McCartney wrote about the Beatles’ song writing formula he said something like, we are just four lads form Liverpool who write songs, there is no formula. I can understand how life gets interesting for you after you rewrite it. Take a break, enjoy the ride this isn’t a dress rehearsal.  Happy New year to you.

[Two very fat sister cooks]  I think the name of the show was Two Fat Ladies. They also rode a motorcycle with a side car. Good show with lots of real butter and why not. They were not into weight watcher for sure.

[Roadside sobriety tests] Is it possible to be "set up" for a DUI? Like, is the tester and meter legit and who can be trusted?

[Dreams] Deer Sloan, I think you should buy a new box spring and mattress for your bed so you can get a better night’s sleep with fewer dreams.

[AA Basher New Year's Explaination] Why do I continue to bash AA? I am not the only one. There are hundreds of web sites that are devoted to AA bashing.  It is not really AA bashing. It more like spreading the word about the outright lies and deception promoted by the AA money machine. www.dangerthinice.org/bash%20alcoholics%20anonymous.htm

NATIONAL POLITICS

[Global Warming] I watched the Blob last night and they couldn’t kill it, but they found that it didn’t like CO2 fire extinguishers from the high school. So the sheriff called the Army (just like that) and they sent a Globemaster to transport the Blob to the Arctic where it would be kept frozen for eternity. At the very end of the movie Steve McQueen said jokingly, “We’ll be safe as long as the Arctic doesn’t melt.”

[Who’s Killing Iran’s Nuclear Scientests?] The covert operations that target Iran’s nuclear program suddenly came to light with explosive violence and stunning implications for the future of warfare on Nov 29. On that Monday morning, dawn had just broken over a bustling Tehran so deeply shrouded in smog that many commuters wore face masks to protect against the fumes and dust in the air. On Artesh Street, among rows of new and half-finished apartment blocks, the nuclear physicist Majid Shahriari was working his way through rush-hour traffic with his wife and bodyguard in his Peugeot sedan. A motorcycle pulled up beside the scien­tist's car. Nothing extraordinary about that. But then the man on the bike stuck something to the outside of the door and sped away. When the magnetically attached bomb went off, its focused explosion killed Shahriari instantly. It wounded the others in the car but spared their lives. A clean hit.

Only a few minutes later and a few miles away, in a leafy neighborhood in the foothills of the Alborz Mountains, again a motorcycle pulled alongside the car of another scientist, Fereydoun Abbasi Davani. A longtime member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Abbasi Davani was named specifically in a United Nations sanctions resolution as "involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities." Sensing what was about to happen, he stopped the car, jumped out, and managed to pull his wife to safety before the bomb went off.

That same morning, in Israel, where many see Iran's nuclear program as a threat to the very existence of the Jew­ish state, nobody celebrated the Teh­ran attacks publicly. Nobody claimed responsibility. But nobody denied it, either.

Ahmadinejad admitted some­thing that his government had tried to deny until that moment: the high-speed centrifuges used to enrich uranium for use as nuclear fuel in reactors, or possi­bly for weapons, had been damaged by a cyber attack. Iran's enemies had been "success­ful in making problems for a limited number of our centrifuges with software they installed in electronic devices."

[Corporatism] The major western democracies are moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies - socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor - and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food.  ~John Pilger

[Aliens on Welfare] A poster wrote that the record number of illegal aliens deported really were not, and are now working somewhere else or on welfare? I’m sure the poster knows exactly where they are and he knows who’s on welfare. I trust this very solid and sound information will be turned over to the proper authorities by him, right?

Please share with us the site you used to find out which ones that were deported are now collecting welfare. I’m sure its good information from a reliable source.

[Climate Change] Do you think it's coincidence that that since we've been freezing our fannies off for the last couple of winters, the greenies are now calling it "climate change" instead of "global warming"?

[Cerebrally Equipped to Debate] It is a joy to be able to read the sterling insights into world affairs delivered by the F.T.R. poster. It is an equal joy to watch the left with their rabid and silly rebuttals to his hard-hitting-on-the-mark posts. They, simply, are not cerebrally equipped to debate the man on his knowledge and understanding. They expose their lack of grasping the facts with their simple and childish rebuttals.

[Schadenfreude] I never wanted it. I was always disappointed when I saw it in others. It is a trait that one should not be proud. But I must say that FTR has broken my barrier and I have received it for the first time. No, I’m not proud that FTR did it, but his self-created anger is so warped. He is clearly obsessively angry and his vitriolic responses to others emphasize unhappiness in his life. So while I admit to having it, FTR imposed it upon himself.

It is called schadenfreude and is pronounced shahd-n-froi-duh. It means joy in the misfortunes of others.

[From the Right] Yesterday a couple of my critics took shots at my opinions and at me. I respect their right to do that.  I welcome critics. It proves that they are reading these humble opinions, and criticism delivers the opportunity to revisit a topic. It is very revealing and interesting that these critics found it necessary to engage in name calling and ad hominem attacks rather than simply stating their reasons for disagreement. The critic who disagreed with my opinion on the new START treaty took the time to list several components of the treaty. None of which I had mentioned or complained about. My primary beef with the treaty is that it contains language (diplo-speak) in its preamble which many legislators and experts are convinced can block us from developing or fielding new missile defense systems. Here are the words: “the interrelationship between strategic offensive arms and strategic defensive arms” and “this interrelationship will become more important as strategic nuclear arms are reduced.” Here is a quote from the White House blog date April 8 2010: “The Russian government made a “unilateral statement” in connection with the treaty signing that indicated that if there is a qualitative and quantitative build-up in the U.S. missile defense system, such a development would justify Russia’s withdrawal from the New START Treaty.” Then in the next sentence the White House said “don’t sweat it, they always say that." That language and Russia’s disclaimer damn sure stops us from developing new machinery that could stop a strategic missile attack on our shores. There are a host of countries developing missiles that will have the capability of hitting us, and there are a host of countries that hate us and want to buy those missiles. The world is full of people determined to vanquish the infidel (you and me).  Then there is the issue that Russia really is no threat to us today. But many other nations are real and current threats. Mr. Obama’s treaty bans us from properly preparing missile defenses. The treaty, like so much of Mr. Obama’s legislation, was passed on an emergency basis and did not receive proper vetting by the Senate or by you and me. Don’t you wonder why it had to be done at the very last minute? The treaty has been front row center for Putin and Obama since at least June of 2009. Add this treaty to the list of Obama emergency legislation that is detrimental to our nation. There now, wasn’t that easy, no name calling needed. Deer Friends, this particular critic has named me the ¼ truth guy, to him that is a pejorative. The critic also opined that: “once again FTR is full of sh*t.” You decide who is telling truth, who is full of “sh*t.” I think he may have meant shit. 

(Part II) Then there is the critic who disagrees with my opinion about “net neutrality”.  I had posted that Team Obama had, by regulatory fiat alone, declared that it now has the power to regulate and censor the internet. Then it exercised that power. There was no legislation involved; the FCC simply said “make it so.” My critic does not dispute that. In his posting he simply tells us that the government has taken control of the internet, but that it is good for us. I urge you to reread his posting. He tells us that it is good for us because Team Obama has decided it is good for us. The critic actually admits that net neutrality will give the government the power to decide which companies have access to the internet. By so doing the government has the power to decide who and what is permissible on the net. With that the government now has the power to decide who says what on the net. Do you really want that? I gather that my critic is of the opinion that my opinions should not be on the net. Deer Readers, my critic charges that my opinions are incompetent and uninformed. You decide.

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Monday December 27, 2010

Sunday December  26, 2010

For all of you that missed the Vineyard's Christmas service. Both 5 and 7 PM were full and the "Pine Key Choir" (that's you), sang like angles. This was by far one of the most beautiful Christmas service's I have ever attend. The Vineyard is deep in musical talent and last night they were at there best. The many hours of rehearsal showed. Thank each and every one of you that worked so very hard to put this Christmas service together. Merry Christmas and Very, Very Happy New Year.

[Sloan] Today' Sunday homily takes peek at the burning at the stake of a Key West High School teacher, who uses sexual metaphor and innuendo to hold his students' attention and help them learn what he feels they might not otherwise learn, a stellar teacher based on prior teaching awards he has received. You can read the entire slam by clicking on this link: goodmorningkeywest.com. Here is a sampling.
 
I thought to myself, I bet the teachers who lined up against this renaissance teacher did so out of jealously of his teaching achievements, as much as out of religious prejudice and sexual hang ups.

I wondered what those same teachers would do with this poem being read to high school students:

He feels deep beauty in the dark pool from which his writings flow. She clings to him like fine silk, precious oil. She feels solid, compressed like . . . a black pearl growing from inside out, ever larger with each stroke of his pen, pushing her precious waters over her banks, into his dreams and life.

I wondered what those same teachers would have done if that poem had been written by the school Valedictorian and read at commencement?

I wondered what those same teachers would have done if this talented teacher had asked his class if they had read Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea? He asked them that because Hemingway had lived in Key West and was still considered one of its literary heroes, along with Tennesee Williams and Robert Frost, who also lived in Key West. I wondered how many of the students had raised their hands, yes, they had read The Old Man and the Sea. Would more than a few hands go up?

I wondered what the students would answer to their teacher’s question: “What’s this novella really about?” I wonder if a student, just one, would wonder out loud if there was any symbolism that ought to be explored? Maybe the teacher would say, ”In a letter to his publisher, Max Perkins, Hemingway ranted furiously against people reading symbolism into his Pulitzer Prize-winning fishing story. He insisted there was no symbolism in it: the old man was an old man, the boy was a boy, the fish was a fish, the sea was the sea. That was all there was to it, Hemingway ranted to Perkins.”

I wondered if any of the students would wonder if maybe Hemingway had protested to much? I wondered how they would have answered their teacher’s question: “What do you suppose the great marlin represented?” Do you think any of the students would have wondered out loud that maybe the marlin was a phallic symbol, and maybe the marlin represented Hemingway’s manhood he was forever in search of in soldier of fortune adventures, mingling with famous bull fighters, catching huge tuna and marlin, hunting big game, boxing, boozing, womanizing?

Do you suppose any of the students would wonder if the boy who didn’t get taken fishing that day by the old man was the young Hemingway whose father was never around for him, the father the young Hemingway spent the rest of his life trying to impress?

Do you suppose any of the students would wonder if the sharks that came to slowly reduce the great fish to bones represented Hemingway's lost, rejected, avenging feminine, coming to claim her due - the budding cancer that eventually would consume his brain and drive him insane and then to suicide – his last act of valor, which kept him from being institutionalized?

Do you suppose any of the students would know The Old Man and the Sea was the last novel Hemingway wrote and the works he started afterward went unfinished?

Do you suppose any of the students would wonder if maybe The Old Man and the Sea was Hemingway’s unconscious suicide note?

When I offered that view of The Old Man and the Sea at a writer’s workshop in 1990, to which I had been invited to present as an “expert” (a published author from out of town), it went over like a lead balloon. Not one writer in the audience, published or unpublished, even came up with the notion that the fish might be a phallic symbol, representational of Hemmingway’s manhood and what was to become of it. I bet the high school teacher the Nazis are crucifying would have no problem with that take on the Old Man and the Sea, or with any of this post. What a great tragedy is being inflicted on this community by ignorant, stupid, backward, mean-spirited people. What a great tragedy.

If any Key West High School students read this post, I hope you will start showing up at Sippin’s Sunday night open mics. Come to listen and/or participate. You will not be censored. You can use any four-letter words you wish. You can say anything you wish, as long as it is not racially or sexually prejudiced. You can even read from the Bible and preach, but most likely it will fall on deaf ears. The kids and adults who perform there are way beyond all of that. As is the audience. It starts at 8 p.m.

On this date in 1921, entertainer, author, songwriter and musician Steve Allen was born into a Catholic family in New York.  Allen became a household name as the original host of the NBC "Tonight Show." He recorded 40 albums as a jazz pianist, composed 7,900 songs, wrote 54 books and created 4 seasons of the memorable PBS series, "Meeting of Minds." When a son joined a cult in the 1970s, Allen wrote Beloved Son: A Story of the Jesus Cults. Allen became aware of the distressing nature of the bible while reading Gideon Bibles left in hotel rooms.

"I believe it is the imposition of a dictatorship that increasing numbers on the Christian Right now wish to construct in the United States that Christianity should be the official religion of the United States and that American laws should be specifically Christian.It was only when I finally undertook to read the Bible through from beginning to end that I perceived that its depiction of the Lord God, whom I had always viewed as the very embodiment of perfection, was actually that of a monstrous, vengeful tyrant, far exceeding in bloodthirstiness and insane savagery the depredations of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Attila the Hun, or any other mass murderer of ancient or modern history."

Why don't we save time and just put Citizen Not Serfs in charge of the Keys right now?

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents & listen

[AA Basher] THE PROMISES OF ASS-AHOLICS ANONYMOUS: 1 - If we are casual with this phase of our insanity, we will be insane before we are halfway through. 2 - We are going to know a new imprisonment, a new misery and total insanity by going to A.A. meetings. 3 - We will relive the past and hopefully won't be able to shut the door on it. 4 - We will comprehend the word lunacy and we will know the truth about A.A. 5 - No matter how far down into lunacy we have gone, we'll sink even lower. 6 - That feeling of lunacy, uselessness and self-pity will deepen. 7 - We will gain interest in selfish things and lose interest in our fellows. 8 - Self esteem will slip away. 9 - Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will be insane. 10 - Fear of people, lunacy and of economic insecurity will multiply. 11 - We will intuitively know how to run from the lunacy which never used to bother us. 12 - We will suddenly realize that God would never have done to us what we are doing to ourselves through A.A. 13 - Are these extravagant promises? We think not! They are being fulfilled among those of us who are still lunatics -- sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. Lunacy will materialize, guaranteed, if we continue going to A.A. religious cult meetings.

NATIONAL POLITICS

The story about Obama arresting employers of illegal aliens left out a really important thing. The illegal aliens were not deported. They are now working somewhere else or are on welfare. They are still here.

A Kraft Foods sign at the corporate headquarters in Northfield, Illinois. President Barack Obama's administration has permitted US firms, including food giants Kraft , to do business worth billions of dollars with Iran and other countries that have been officially blacklisted, a report said Friday

The ¼ truth guy strikes again. He claims, “In START we surrender the right to develop, produce, and implement missile defense systems to protect ourselves from any missile attack.” He talks about Venezuela and North Korea.

I’ll just cherry pick two items:

1. Within the Treaty

“Aggregate limits:

1,550 warheads.  Warheads on deployed ICBMs and deployed SLBMs count toward this limit and each deployed heavy bomber equipped for nuclear armaments counts as one warhead toward this limit.  This limit is 74% lower than the limit of the 1991 START Treaty and 30% lower than the deployed strategic warhead limit of the 2002 Moscow Treaty.  

A combined limit of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.

A separate limit of 700 deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.  This limit is less than half the corresponding strategic nuclear delivery vehicle limit of the START Treaty.”

2. This what we have on the drawing board.

“Phase One (in the 2011 timeframe) – Deploy current and proven missile defense systems available in the next two years, including the sea-based Aegis Weapon System, the SM-3 interceptor (Block IA), and sensors such as the forward-based Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance system (AN/TPY-2), to address regional ballistic missile threats to Europe and our deployed personnel and their families;

Phase Two (in the 2015 timeframe) – After appropriate testing, deploy a more capable version of the SM-3 interceptor (Block IB) in both sea- and land-based configurations, and more advanced sensors, to expand the defended area against short- and medium-range missile threats;

Phase Three (in the 2018 timeframe) –  After development and testing are complete, deploy the more advanced SM-3 Block IIA variant currently under development, to counter short-, medium-, and intermediate-range missile threats; and 

Phase Four (in the 2020 timeframe) – After development and testing are complete, deploy the SM-3 Block IIB to help better cope with medium- and intermediate-range missiles and the potential future ICBM threat to the United States.”

So, therefore, once again FTR is full of sh*t.

[From the Right] The claims posted yesterday on illegal immigration were probably correct. I didn’t bother to check.  The reason I didn’t is because the claims are meaningless. Mr. Obama does not want to seal our southern border. He has decided that keeping the border porous is to his political benefit. He has proven that by his decision to go to war with Arizona. Arizona enacted legislation that would have given them a tool to fight illegal immigration on the State level. Mr. Obama was offended and has declared war on the people of  Arizona’s efforts to protect themselves. Mr. Obama has become an ally of La Razza and the many supporters of "la reconquista." “California is going to become a Hispanic state, anyone who doesn’t like should leave” that is a direct quote from Mario Obledo, Democrat party official, and La Raza functionary who has served as California’s Secretary of Health and Welfare. If Mr. Obama were to actually embark on a mission to seal the border, he would alienate substantial numbers of his supporters. Getting and keeping the Latino vote is crucial to the Democrats.  America is awash in drugs that have come across the southern border. Mexico is burning up and is well on its way to becoming a nation ruled by narco terrorists. Mexico has suffered tens of thousands of narco murders fueled by profits from America’s drug trade. The criminals have adopted terrorists practices from M.F. Terrorists. Decapitation is in vogue in Mexico.  Violence from the narco terrorists has already invaded our shores. We’ve seen murders, and home invasion. An American city, Phoenix, has become infamous because of kidnappings by Mexican narco terrorists. Bands of Mexican smugglers are regularly spotted on American soil. Our border law enforcement officers are regularly attacked and some have been murdered. Team Obama’s yet Team Obama’s braggadocios response to this invasion is to take action against employers of illegal aliens. Mr. Obama has elected to view the problem as an annoying political and/or economic issue. He is wrong; it is a national security emergency. Team Obama brags of deporting bus loads of illegals, which my Deer Friends is bragging about catch and release. Just like here, the practice makes sure that there will be many more fish to catch. Catch and release encourages further illegal immigration.  Mr. Bush sent 6000 troops to the border. In May of this year,  Democrats blocked a Republican proposal to send 6000 new troops to the border, bolstered by $2 Billion in border security funding. Mr. Obama chose instead to send 1200 troops. Those troops are strictly “support” personnel. They have no, -0-, zero enforcement authority. Mr. Obama’s “support” troops will arrest or detain no one. Not a single illegal will be arrested or detained by these troops. Mr. Obama’s troop decision was a political decision designed to massage his base of Latino’s. It is reliably reported that more than half of Mexicans living in the U.S. are illegal aliens.  Mr. Obama has made our national security nothing more than political theater.  Perhaps it is impossible to actually seal the border, but we will never know until we actually try.

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Sunday December  26, 2010

Christmas Day 2010

Try our very special Holiday Pancakes for an extra treat.  ~Editor

[Sloan] Further email correspondence with my old lesbian Presbyterian deacon choir member actress historical preservationist girlfriend now sister in Birmingham, Alabama, where I hatched unimmaculately out of black hole this time around. Her parts in italics. This is a bit long-winded, so just this "comic relief" in this teaser below. To see the whole schmele, click on this link: goodmorningfloridakeys.com.

Once upon a time, an Episcopal priest of renown in Birmingham told me that if Judas had not killed himself, God would have done great things with him. I thought to myself, did not voice, that if it had gone that way, God would not have had to requisition the persecutor murderer of Christians, Saul of Tarsus, on the Road to Damascus. Imagine the wrenching Saul’s conversion to Paul caused in the people who had known Jesus up close and personal. Imagine what all Paul endured for what he had done as Saul. Imagine, therefore, what Judas would have endured, had he not killed himself. Who would have believed anything he said? Mary Magdalene would have believed him, but who other than Judas would have believed her? Maybe they would have ended up getting hitched prior to the stoning and under cover of darkness fled to southern France with her and Jesus’ child. Maybe they would have had more of those special children. Maybe they would have created a race of super humans, whose progenies’ fertilization of the hairless monkeys and apes, who called themselves people, would have changed the course of history in ways the mostly hairless monkeys and apes in that day, and in this time, could not possibly imagine. Meanwhile, I wonder if Jesus where he resides now finds it amusing, in the irony sense, that the long-awaited Messiah of the practicing Jews in his day, who was to deliver them from their enemies, the Romans, delivered the goods after a Roman Emperor, Constantine, seeing the handwriting on the wall, made Christianity the state religion, which slick political move slowly but surely fueled the secular destruction of the Roman Empire and the secular liberation of the Jews from Roman domination. Not that the deliverance did anything particularly noteworthy for the souls of those delivered Jews. It was their souls Jesus was after, not their bodies, and in that regard that’s still what he is after and he really doesn’t care how it comes about, as long as it happens and the New Covenant becomes the way the mostly hairless monkeys and apes of this world live. Not holding my breath on that one, but it was what Jesus was after when he walked this planet of the monkeys and apes, and it is the karma of this simian species to experience, if not on this world, then on another world. I use world very loosely here, so don’t ask me what other planet it might happen on? It might be on another planet, it might be on this planet, and it might simply be in a dimension the so-called dominant species of this simian planet can’t fathom. Did I tell about the stargate I found the other day on a nearby Key? Or about the space ship that dropped into my backyard for a visit on the last fool, er, full moon? Santa is capable of bringing presents the likes of which his believers cannot possibly dream. Ho, Ho, Ho. Quit snickering, mullet face. My view of the cosmos makes sense and Christianity is ninety percent superstition, not to be outdone by any means by other religions. If what is really going on around and on this planet of the monkeys and apes alone were made visible to the mostly hairless ones, the Revelation lovers, the  bringers of the dawn and the 2012 where-de-fuck-are-we? groupies would shat their diapers and then stab themselves to death with the safety pins, thinking they were injecting themselves with safety serum until they came to on the other side and realized they had jumped from the tar baby into a black hole. Everywhere we go, there we are. Ho, Ho, Ho. Merry, merry Christ-mas, you asked for it knowing you should be careful what you ask for. Ho, Ho, Ho. Somehow, I just don’t see theological scholar explorers like Elaine Pagels, and Da Vinci Code type authors, and mercenary milk toast mystics like Caroline Myss, of Boulder, Colorado, getting too terribly excited about being sucked out of a tar baby into a gaping black hole, which eats everything this universe can come up with and digests it and spits it back out as food for the stars, except for the parts it sends to where not even God knows because God is still discovering just who and what God really is. If that were no so, God would be so dang bored that suicide would be the only sane option, and then what would come from that pandorean implosion? Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God! Yep, another BIG BANG. Now you know how it is, one BIG BANG after another; multiple orgasms is the driving force in God. Sounds pretty darn good to me. Cheers!!! 

Link to GoodMorningFloridaKeys.com

NATIONAL POLITICS

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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Friday, Christmas Eve 2010

Local civilian Capt. Corey Gauron of the Yankee Freedom 2 honored for saving lives. Civilian captain honored for saving lives | KeysNews.com

County Administrator Roman Gastesi's girlfriend was arrested for assaulting him. Both drunk, and she got violent. Lat year, she was driving her car and hit a girl pedestrian who was crossing an intersection in Key Largo. 

[Trash Police --Less Service] A mandatory recycling program is coming and it will be part of the solid waste department. The program will be simple, you're either recycling or you are not.  If it is reported that you are not recycling then you will get fined. The Trash Police live at the Gato building and they are already out inspecting your garbage. Get real -- your garbage bill is a bargain with all the trash you and your neighbors create being picked up twice a week. Yes, pretty soon you may be better off eating your trash, because eventually you will only have a 96 gallon bin for trash, and a 32 gallon bin for recycling. The trash bin will be picked up once a week and the recycling every other week.  Trash pick-up on weekends and holidays will be eliminated.

[Southwest Florida Christmas] SW Florida is not the only area with road challenged snowbirds. http://bit.ly/gESpQK

[Sloan] No surprise to anyone, Florida’s new Governor Scott, Republican, is aiming at merging the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), the Department of  Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) into a single agency, which I imagine will be run (if the merger occurs) by one of Governor Scott's hand-picked growth zealot goon cronies. Translated, adios environmental protection and over-building, hello unbridled development, new roads, all of which Amendment 4 was aimed at preventing. Alas, only about 1/3 of the Florida voters opposed “paving” the rest of Florida at the polls on November 2, and Amendment 4 went bye-bye.
 
You can read more about this in the merger raises concerns” front page article of today’s Key West Citizen and the excellent editorial on page 4A borrowed from the Tampa Tribune, which I am unable to bring up on my laptop, so it might only be readable on paper copies of the Citizen. The Citizen article quotes various Monroe County Commissioners and State Representative Ron Saunders, all of whom seem to be scratching their heads a bit, trying not to piss off Governor Growth while stating that have to be their real concerns that he has lost his ever-loving, fucking mind!
 
Gee whiz. Scott’s a successful businessman, some have said not an entirely honest or legal successful businessman, but what the heck, we all know that business is king in America and all others have to pay tribute. We all know that if you wave the capitalist flag, our armed forces will stand to attention and salute. We all know it was lack of development in Florida that caused the real estate marked to crash and burn, ad valorem tax values and state and local ad valorem tax revenues to plummet beneath the basement of Davie Jones’ Locker. We all know that it was those dirty, scheming, communist environmentalists that caused the Florida economy to go down like the Titanic. Now let us all bow down to our savior, Governor Growth. Hail to the King! Long live the King!
 
I listed to Ron Saunders on US 1 Radio yesterday. I listened to County Commissioner David Rice on US 1 Radio this morning. A psychologist, David said he doesn’t get anxious about things before he knows what the fact are to be anxious about. Maybe being a Republican mitigates David's anxiety over his Party’s governor. Maybe having opposed Amendment 4 gives David comfort in the face of Growthageddon’s lovely head looming over the horizon like the rising sun – we do remember Pearl Harbor don’t we? And 911? And BP? Darn, I wish I could be sanguine about this, I wish I wasn’t feeling any anxiety. I wish I was numb, deaf, dumb and blind. Heck, it might be that if I wasn’t feeling anxiety I would be crazy and ought to be locked up in the state mental.
 
Folks, wake up. This tiny, skinny, low-population string of fossilized coral reef islands has about as much sway with Governor Growth as a live mullet bait drifting under a kite has sway with a passing mako shark. Think Ft. Lauderdale. Think Miami Beach. Think Naples and Marco Island. Think Destin. Think Disney World, and that will give you a real good MRI image of Governor Growth’s brain wave. Then think about who you voted for for governor, and for your county commission on November 2, and on Amendment 4, and see where your brain wave fits into that mix. See if you find any schizophrenia in there, inside your noggin.
 
Then ask yourself how come you now want a super majority rule on the county commission, for changes to our comprehensive plan and land development regulations? And ask yourself why you now want Monroe to become a charter county, so it can create its own local Amendment 4 and recall its elected officials, especially its county commissioners, and so it can bring local legislation about by referendum? Then ask yourself if you are feeling calm like David Rice said he was feeling on US 1 Radio this morning. I went to every candidate forum with David this year, and he is very skilled at hedging his answers to tough questions, leaving himself a way out at a later date.
 
Be that as it may, I hope David and the other four commissioners will quit playing politics and will start doing everything they can, pronto, to put into place in our county laws and regulations that will prevent Governor Growth from visiting his Armageddon on the Florida Keys. We can’t do an darn think to help the other Florida counties, but we the people of the Conch Republic have fought the northern aggressors before, and we can do it again. We must do it again. We cannot let those imperialist bastards do to us what they already did to much of Florida, and have every intention to doing to the rest of it that the Federal Government does not control.
 
I say f**k you Governor Growth and all of the horses you rode in on. I might not speak for the majority down here in the Keys, but I bet I speak for the nearly 7,000 patriots who voted for me on November 2. Link to GoodMorningFloridaKeys.com
 

2011 New Car preview. http://bit.ly/hhTAFP

[A Christmas Blessing] Nichelle Allen-Mullen received her Christmas wish and closed on her Habitat for Humanity home this past week. 

Nichelle, a manager of a hair salon in Key West and her young son Bryce, will enjoy their first Christmas in their own home, which they helped to build, at Bayside Landing, Big Coppitt Key. 

Pictured are (L to R):  Janae Allen (Nichelle's sister), Rich Fielder of True Title Agency, Inc., who graciously donates his services to all Habitat for Humanity homebuyers, and Nichelle. 

All of us at Habitat for Humanity would like to extend our sincerest wishes for a blessed holiday season and a joyous New Year to Nichelle and Bryce and all our Habitat families!

Florida's Drug Czar gets pink slip. 2,500 Floridians have died this year from prescription drugs. that’s equivalent to nearly seven deaths a day. The duties of the Office of Drug Control will be taken up by law enforcement and the Health Dept.  The Office of Drug Control was established by Jeb Bush, and its budget is about a half million a year. The office also deals with suicide prevention and seaport security. They failed.  http://bit.ly/fSu86K

[Digital TV Antenna] Does anyone think this homemade device will work in the Keys? I’d sure like to cut my cable bill. I'm stimied by the  impedance-matching transformer? I have no idea what it does and where I can buy one for under ten dollars.

1. Gather Parts. This antenna spins to orient a pattern of wires, known as an array in engineerspeak, toward broadcasting towers. Rabbit ears and some other older antennas can't receive high-frequency digital TV transmissions (but if you have an old antenna, try it). To assemble this DIY design, get
~32 inch and 6 inch-long 1x4 pine boards
~Eight 17 inch lengths and two 34 inch lengths of bare12 gauge copper wire (for the ears and phasing bars)
~Heat-shrink tubing
~10 No. 8 -½ inch round-head wood screws and fender washers.
~Buy an impedance-matching transformer (IMT) to maximize signal transmission from channels at different frequencies.

2. Build The Array. Bend the 17-inch-long copper wires into eight "ears," or acute angles, with 3 inches of space separating the ends. Lay the 32-inch pine board flat, arrange the ears, and thread the phasing bars from ear to ear, as shown. Fit each pair of wires beneath fender washers and drive in the screws. Wrap electrical tape around the phasing bars where they cross, to prevent contact. In the center of the array, fasten the IMT and both phasing bars beneath a fender washer and screw. Construct the base by attaching the 6-inch 1 x 4 perpendic­ular to the 32-inch board using coarse-threaded screws.

3.   Wrap It Up. Place heat-shrink tubing over the tips of the ears and use a flame or heat gun to shrink it tight to the wires. Use coaxial cable to connect a digital-signal ­ready television or converter box to the transformer. Switch on your TV, orient the antenna, and enjoy the show.

I get a great haircut at A Cut Above in Marathon, Town Square Center.  Lisa and Valerie are wonderful.  I have been going there for 7 years and wouldn't go anyplace else.  Some may like the shop at the Winn Dixie Plaza in Big Pine, but I am staying with A Cut Above.  My son even goes there. No appointments are required.

[There is a God] Pat Robinson has come out in favor of legalizing marijuana.

[Pigeon Key] You must mean1000 people a year.  I've been driving by the island for a decade and I haven’t seen 1000 in that entire time.

[Remember Being In Love] Remember that magic time in your life when you got in this argument with that special someone? “I love you more.” “No, I love you more.” “NO I live you more,” NO, I love you more.”  “I love you the most!” Well, remember it again.

[Restaurant Review] We just had dinner at the Big Pine Restaurant. The fajita special is really, really good. They serve the fixings on a sizzling platter and all the cold stuff is home made and cool and fresh.  They even serve the tortillas in a warming dish with a top. They are warm, moist and fresh.  Be ready to get really stuffed, the portions are huge. The steak platter is made with great marinated steak that is flavorful and tender. They told me that they are going to be serving it as a special every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. All their food is good, but the fajitas are exceptional.

[Christmas Atheists] Have you ever noticed that every Christmas all the atheists crawl out from wherever they live and try and convince us that they are relevant?  They believe that the universe and the life it contains are the result of some happening.  They have no idea what caused that happening, but it certainly was not the efforts of some sort of god.  I have no fight with atheists, but only ask that they keep their opinions to themselves during this religious season.  I believe they are only trying to convince themselves that they are accurate.  The rest of us know the truth.

[Pigeon Key] Supporting them is another terrible waste of tax money.

Thanks to whoever posted the great info on Kwanzaa on Tuesday.  Who cares?  To know that it is a made up holiday by an anti-American racist is enough info for me.

[Health Fair]  Deer Amar Mandalia, Can you update your health fair ad to indicate what kind of cholesterol screening it is? Is it total cholesterol or will it include LDL, HDL and triglycerides?  What kind of colorectal cancer screening test?

For anyone who has never attended the health fair, it's an excellent opportunity to get health screen for little or no cost.

NORAD Tracks Santa. He’s on his way http://bit.ly/4WIDWK

What's Kevin, the Biz Baz guy, doing these days?

There was a Tesla convertible sports car in the parking lot of Winn Dixie yesterday. It was so cool everyone stopped to look at it. I understand the body was designed by Ferrari. What a beautiful car and it’s totally electric! It was parked in a handicapped parking spot. I guess it belonged to a rich cripple.

[Mowing Over Trash] I do think that people of the Keys could volunteer to clean up once in a while. I try to do what I can by picking up the biggest trash items and depositing them into trash cans which are usually only a few yards away. I don't see locals pitching in. Frankly, it looks like no one here cares.

Of course visitors do care and the dirtier the Keys get, the fewer visitors there will be. But hey, it's not worth lifting ones butt off the couch to clean up or paying so the County does it.

Grandma Got Molested At the Airport. An update to an old favorite Christmas song. http://bit.ly/dQQXPP

[Lay-offs] If Key West does fire any employees be sure and get their free parking card.

[Homework] The main problem with our education system is the students not bothering to practice and learn all of what they are shown in the classroom.

[Drug Theft] Questions raised over reported Key West prescription thefts. http://bit.ly/gXOGKu

[Gas at the NNK Fish Camp] Call them for the price, but like all marinas, they are more expensive. Business Directory > Gasoline

If the powers that be can shut up that rude ex- queen on Biz-Baz that talks over and is so rude to the people that call in while they are talking and trying to give their info and phone numbers, they would probably have a larger audience. Chuck and Bill are the only ones that show any class at that station. I have lived here in the Keys full time nearly 35 years and have met her and she is just as bad in person as on the air.  ~kendick1766@att.net

Canadian Police chase. Ha ha. Video

Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says to love your enemy.

NATIONAL POLITICS

President Obama is vacationing in Hawaii this Christmas. See, I told you he wasn’t an American!

[Conscience] Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.  ~Henry David Thoreau Civil Disobedience

[Definitions] FTR guy reads the meaning of words as written by Webster’s dictionary then he tells us what they really mean.

[Animal Farm] You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in The last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs realize they have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

This is exactly what is happening to America. It is called the New World Order.

If North and South Korea go at it, where will the fall-out go to? There's no place for us to hide on this rock. Maybe people will wake up to how dangerous the nuke crap really is – all nukes.

There was a man who worked for the Post Office whose job was to process all the mail   that had illegible addresses. One day, a letter came addressed in a shaky handwriting to God with no actual address. He thought he should open it to see what it was about. The letter read:

Dear God,
I am an 83 year old widow, living on a very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100 in it, which was all the money I had until my next pension payment. Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without    that money, I have nothing to buy food with, have no family to turn to, and you are my    only hope. Can you please help me?  
Sincerely, Edna 

The postal worker was touched. He showed the letter to all the other workers. Each one   dug into his or her wallet and came up with a few dollars.  By the time he made the rounds, he had collected $96, which they put into an envelope and sent to the woman.  The rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of Edna and the dinner she would be able to share with her friends. Christmas came and went.  A few days later, another letter came from the same old lady to God.  All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened. It read: 

Dear God,
How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me?  Because of your gift of love, I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends.  We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your wonderful gift.  By the way, there was $4 missing.  I think it might have been those bastards at the post office.
Sincerely, Edna

[Kwanzaa the racist holiday] It was dreamt up in the 60s by Ron Everett, a UCLA black nationalist who preached the “Path of Blackness,” which is detailed in his Quotable Karenga: “The sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black.”

Everett is also a convicted felon having tortured two women. He believed they were putting "crystals" in his food and water. The women were whipped with an electric cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes at gunpoint. They testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in one women's mouth and placed against the others face and that one of their big toes was tightened in a vice. Everett also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths. Nice guy, huh?

This supposed to be some kind of harvest festival but it is held in December. (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?) And the seven candles used are just a rip off of the Menorah.

Festivus actually has more validity than this sham holiday.

Consider this my airing of grievances.

Let's all buy FTR a sense of humor for Christmas!  He is way too serious! 

If you've started to wonder what the real costs of socialism are going to be once the full program in these United States hits your wallet, take a  look at the table.  As you digest these mind-boggling figures, keep in mind that in spite of these astronomical tax rates, these countries are still not financing their social welfare programs exclusively from tax revenues.  They are deeply mired in public debt of gargantuan proportions.  Greece has reached the point where its debt is so huge it is in imminent danger of  defaulting.  That is the reason the European economic community has intervened to bail them out.  If you're following the financial news, you know Spain and Portugal are right behind Greece. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_of_Europe

[More threats from the little people] North Korea could carry out a third nuclear test next year to strengthen the credentials of its young leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un, a research report from a South Korean Foreign Ministry institute said on Friday.

The report came a day after Pyongyang vowed a nuclear "sacred war," using its nuclear deterrent, after the South vowed to be "merciless" if attacked again and held a major military drill near the border.

The North, which carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, has yet to show it has a deliverable weapon as part of its plutonium arms program, but a third test would raise tensions further on the divided peninsula and rattle global markets.

What do you get for pretending the danger's not real? Meek and obedient you follow the leaders down well-trodden corridors into the valley of steel.  ~Roger Waters

To those of you who have not received a Christmas card from us, we offer the following list of excuses:

We did not have your mailing address, We were too cheap to buy a stamp, The US postal service was asleep, We don't like you, You are liberals or progressives, we forgot. Please accept the attached in lieu of the 42 cents we would have spent on a stamp plus I hate licking stamps.  We spent the 42 cents on ammunition to defend you from the invading hordes of drug smugglers and illegals crossing the border into our Great State of Arizona.  Sleep comfortably tonight knowing we are your first line of defense.

For God and Country,

Merry Christmas.

[Obama’s accomplishments the last two years]  He has done nothing to benefit the hard working individualists that are working every day to make a better life.  All I see is his mantra for more and bigger government controlling more of our life and sending us the bill.

To My Democratic Friends, Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious/secular persuasion of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2011 but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society  have helped make America great. Not to imply that  America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only  America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To My Republican Friends, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[From the Right] I have always said that Mr. Obama was a hard charging consequential President. He is consequential in the same manner that the Haitian earthquake was consequential to that nation. Second, Mr. Obama and the START treaty make a perfect match. He has by now signed START, a treaty with a nation that currently poses no threat to us. In exchange we have given up the ability to protect ourselves from nations that do. In START we surrender the right to develop,produce, and implement missile defense systems to protect ourselves from any missile attack.  We surrender that right at the same instant that the lunatic socialist despot of  Venezuela is purchasing missiles with the capability of hitting our cities.He gave up our right to self defense in a world that has N. Korea, Iran and sundry others who are racing to develop missiles with the ability to strike the USA and our allies. Those nations have declared that the USA is their sworn enemy, an enemy that must be destroyed. In signing the START treaty Mr. Obama has handed our enemies a major advantage. I pray that we will not pay for Mr. Obama’s folly. In reviewing the posted list of damages inflicted on America by Mr. Obama it is striking that nearly every one of them requires massive government spending at a time when our nation is at great risk because of massive debt. There is no mention whatsoever of reducing the debt or cutting spending.I can agree with the wisdom of only a few of the items listed, and I note that several are wildly misleading. For example, contrary to the claim, Mr. Obama has not expanded release of all Presidential records, indeed he has slammed the door on release of his own records, but he has permitted the release of previous Presidential records, this against the advice of the intelligence community. Mr. Obama is proving to the the most secretive of Presidents in my memory.  Contrary to the claim, Mr. Obama did not craft the end of the Iraq war, nor is Mr. Obama the author of the troop withdrawal policy from Iraq. That was mandated by a treaty between the USA and Iraq signed by President Bush. Mr. Obama had no choice or impact in or on the matter. The mentions of health care are insulting in that at least 60% of Americans urge the repeal of all or great portions of Obamacare. Some of the accomplishments listed are farcical, for example:  #61. "Remove more brush, small trees and vegetation that fuel wildfires.”  The list’s overarching theme is the massive growth of the power of government, massive increases in government spending, massive intrusions into industry, diminution of personal responsibility, and expansion of entitlement programs. One must question why there is no mention of Mr. Obama's nationalizing important segments of our biggest industries. There is no mention of Mr. Obama's declared intention limit freedom of speech by regulating content on the airwaves, nor is there mention of his intent to stifle the right to secret ballot in unionization voting. I wonder why the Obabooster did not brag that since Mr. Obama took office the unemployment rate has risen to an average rate of about 10% where as the average in Bush’s term was about 5%?  I do not believe that Obabbooser is the author of the list. It is not his original thought. The list is a perfect duplicate of a blog posting in a web site called “Blackwater Dog” dated 12/19. I wonder why he did not credit that web site or the real author? That site is slavishly, and admittedly, dedicated to paeans of adoration for Mr. Obama.  Does anyone anywhere have any idea WTF item #76, “work to overturn Ledbetter vs Goodyear” is about? (no fair looking it up). Thanks to the Obama true believer, even if he is a plagerist, for giving me the posting opportunity.s s

Did you know that Team Obama has just seized the right to censor and control the internet? Not through legislation, they did it by the FCC simply deciding that it could. It’s called “Net Neutrality.” In fact a substantial majority of legislators advised against it and the overwhelming majority of users are against it. What’s next?

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Friday December 24, 2010

Thursday December 23, 2010

[Flea Market Closed] All of us at the Big Pine Flea Market will be busy helping Santa this Saturday and resting up on Sunday. We will not be open December 25th or 26th.   We wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and we will be open next weekend, New Years Day at our regular hours Saturday and Sunday.

[Desperately Seeking Susan] I was going by the new Walgreens here in Big Pine today and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a lovely lady I knew about 35 years ago. I would have stopped if I could to make sure, but couldn't. Her name is Susan Darlene Brearley and she was riding a 3 wheeled bicycle. I'm desperately seeking Susan! My name is Jim Taylor. sailboatjimm@yahoo.com

Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi‘s girlfriend was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge early Wednesday following a 3 a.m. argument in which she allegedly struck Gastesi in the face, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

[Raises] I have heard that the City of Key West is about to lay off 1/4 of their work force, but mostly the people they have been watching for the last 6 months who are unproductive. I say it is about time. There’s way too much dead weight around. This cleansing is always healthy for a City.  

[Sloan] To the cheerful readers of the Coconut Telegraph of bigpinekey.com, where the men are men and the Key deer does are afraid.
 
Today's holiday puking continues an examination of madness rooted in the destruction of the female essence in human beings. To help the vomiting along is a report I received yesterday afternoon on what might be, or might not be, a Key West police officer's very serious treatment of a drunk couple (tourists) he found on a beach one night. Maybe he mistook them for homeless people, but then, he gave the man a DUI, as he had a car but it doesn't appear he was in the car. Or maybe he was. Yeah, it confuses me, too. The other half of the vomit engine today was a report I heard yesterday afternoon of County Administrator Roman Gastesi's natural-green-living girlfriend getting put in the pokey for domestic violence on Roman following them both getting three sheets to the wind at a fool, er, full moon party lasting into the wee hours. This happened in Islamorada, causing me, and others, to wonder if there might be something in the water up there that causes women to get put into the pokey for beating up their men - re: the fracas some months back between the Pussy of Islamorada (its mayor) and his wife. I suppose it is now even more confusing and maybe it will become more clear, or maybe not, if you read all about it by clicking on this link: goodmorningfloridakeys.com.

New Duran Duran music." All You Need is Now ". Well said. http://yhoo.it/eNM9Yg

[Kwanzaa] On December 26, 1966 Ron Karenga and his family and friends lit the Unity candle, the Umoja candle, and commenced the first Kwanzaa.

Kwanzaa has only gained popularity since. On December 24, 1971 the New York Times ran their first article covering the festival, and recently the Postal Service released a Kwanzaa stamp. Hallmark, too, has begun to market the holiday.

Seven principles--one for each day of the feast--guide the celebration: Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba, and Imani. In English, the principles are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Today, the holiday does not serve as a replacement for religious holidays, although it may, but rather is a secular event aimed at encouraging American blacks to remember their African roots.

The founder of Kwanzaa, Ron Everett, a.k.a. Maulana Ron Karenga, stood at the forefront of the black power movement in the 1960s. Karenga distinguished himself as a "cultural nationalist" as opposed to a traditional Marxist. In 1965 Karenga founded the United Slaves Organization (US), a group that would rival the Black Panthers on the UCLA campus. The US was more radical than the Panthers, setting off quarrels between the two.

[Bar Wisdom] The difference between a drunk and an alcoholic is the AA guys never buy a round.

[More Bar Wisdom] Do you know why guys don't cheat on their wives in the Keys? Because our real wives are on the mainland!

Menopausal Woman or Demolition Derby? Video

[Unedited—something about haicuts] big pine hair four of us one has a good cut We did not give the name of the place its not the owners its bad it is rose you pay 30 or 35...40 dollars for cut NO HAIR gets washed people beware no hair dies in or cuts without washing at home I now drive 52  miles for the best cut that's round trip its almost worth it in gas just becareful where who cuts the 3 hat heads in big pine

[Doe, a Deer] That video of the flash mob singing the Hallelujah Chorus was amazing. I'd hate to have been the first person starting to sing. This is an equally cool video of another flash mob in Central Station in Antwerp, Belgium. No singing but some mighty impressive choreography. http://bit.ly/99hO4k

[Biz Baz] They need someone who knows how to sell  stuff and match up peoples’ needs and wants -- not chit chat!

[Pot Luck Dinner] Lower Keys Property Owners Association Pot Luck Dinner and general meeting, Monday, January 3rd at our club house on Bogie Rd. (just before the No Name Bridge) in Big Pine Key. 6:00 pm B.Y.O. happy hour. Hors d oeuvres and set-ups provided. 6:45 pot luck. All lower Keys residents are invited just bring a dish to share. Bulletin Board

OK Go. This Too Shall Pass The Rube Goldberg machine version. http://bit.ly/bHEoaY

[Pick up trash before mowing] One thing done right in this Texas county is that those given community service, especially those convicted of littering, are sent out in a jail van, wearing orange vests, to put in their hours picking up roadside trash in areas scheduled to be mowed.  Don't mess with Texas.

Dear AA Basher, Like most common drunks you’re a bore. You repeat yourself endlessly as if you were a cult leader yourself. I used to go to AA meetings all the time. I met some really charming, intelligent people there who taught me a lot about what to expect in relapse and recovery. I also met some a**holes like you. I never felt like I was in a cult because the door was always open to come and go as I pleased. I don’t go to many meetings anymore because I do other things for my recovery including finding balance. I’m always happy to take a newcomer to their first meeting and kind of explain things and talk about what they saw and heard afterwards. You sound like an angry child.  

Christmas celebrations around the world. http://usat.ly/eQ1ke5

The only fear we have is fear of expecting litigation.

Eddie Vedder was born on this date in Evanston, Ill. With a rocky home life, which included living with seven foster siblings, Vedder changed his name to his mother's maiden name when he learned that his father was actually his stepfather. His family in the mid-1970s, moved to San Diego, where Vedder picked up surfing as a pastime, but he returned to Chicago to briefly attend community college in the early 1980s.Vedder met with unexpected, and, according to him, unwanted fame when he co-founded the band Pearl Jam. (The band was so named for Vedder's great grandmother Pearl's delectable homemade jam). Eddie Vedder has also made a name for himself individually, unaffiliated with Pearl Jam. He is an outspoken environmentalist, vegetarian and pro-choice advocate.

Vedder has made widely known his non-belief. In a Rolling Stone interview he said, "When you're out in the desert, you can't believe the amount of stars. We've sent mechanisms out there, and they haven't found anything. They've found different colors of sand, and rings and gases, but nobody's shown me anything that makes me feel secure in what happens afterward. All I really believe in is this moment, like right now. And that, actually, is what the whole album (Ten) talks about ("Right Here, Right Now."). I would thank God, but I don't believe in it. The word 'religion' has such bad connotations for me, that it's been responsible for wars, and it shouldn't be that way at all, it's just the way the meaning of the word has evolved to me. I have to wonder what we did on this planet before religion."  

[Mandatory recycling]  From my conversations with Monroe County, recycling is here to stay.  For the residents that do not want to cooperate, soon the BOCC will make it mandatory and you will either recycle, be fined to death, or hit the road and move on.

Hey folks, this is SammySam the DirecTV man wishing everyone on the Coconut Telegraph, on behalf of Luis and myself, a safe and happy holidays! We at Florida Keys Satellite thank you for all your support and great comments. Our mission for this coming New Year is to continue working hard and providing you with excellent service as always.

[Contractor Mowing] Any and all County jails are full of prisoners - too full.  Roadside trash pickup is a major benefit for the taxpayers and inmates of any County.  Here in Polk County (Sheriff Grady Judd) the prisoners and DUI community service sentenced people, do trash pickup on the roadsides before any mowing is done.  Always.  The prisoners get work time reductions in their sentences, community service hours are worked off and we, the taxpayers get no shredded trash the polluters (who should be in jail) throw out their car windows.

Monroe County needs to join the rest of the free world and have the inmates that are living off your tax dollars, and the DUI folks that made a bad mistake, make a difference in your community.

[What happened to Kwanzaa?]  It was replaced by Festivus for the rest of us.

Christmas overload? My wife is now singing this all the time. http://bit.ly/1aAXFw

[AA] I am clean and sober for 13 year this month. I don't go to as many meeting as I used to. I have been doing a fair amount of service work and have not wrecked anyone’s Christmas in a very long time. AA is just fine. I could not let go of the life style I was caught up in with out it. If nothing changes--nothing changes! Don't be afraid to ask for help. It's cold and lonely out there. Merry Christmas to all.

[Outboard Gas] I used to get a mile a gallon with my two-stroke outboard. I upgraded to a 225 hp Yamaha 4-stroke and no get 3.36 mpg. Yeah!

Who needs DNA? It is written.

[Contractor mowing]  Remember keysspill.com?  Remember how they put on their website that they had 4,000 volunteers?  Remember how many of those volunteers, expecting oil landfall, cleaned up trash everywhere?  I suggested to keysspill and the Nature Conservancy, with whom keysspill was involved, use those same volunteers to cleanup the Keys.  I guess they didn't think it was a good idea.
 
I hope you don't think the County is going to clean up trash after its citizens and visitors deposit it there unless you want to pay more taxes.  I doubt the contractor was told he was supposed to clean up trash as part of his duties.  Blame the people who throw the trash there.  You get that problem solved and no longer will there be small pieces of trash ending up in the ocean.

[Turkey Take Down] I watched the turkeys in that IKC video Sunday and I realized why Ben Franklin wanted to make the turkey the National Bird. The cocks are magnificent when they puff themselves up like they do. They are really magnificent to behold. I think if they were colorful the eagle wouldn’t have had a chance of becoming our bird.

We went to the Health Fair two years ago and my wife got misdiagnosed by one of the students. It cost her over two thousand dollars to find out she was healthy.

[2 Pigeon Keys] No, there is only one. It’s located approximately one mile south of Marathon on the old 7 Mile Bridge. As for not seeing anyone there, you may be have to look hard because the non-profit that runs it says they only have about a thousand visitors a month. On occasion you may see people walking on the Old Bridge to get there. You may also see the ferry, a six passenger boat that taxpayers fork over $250,000 a year to operate, tied up there.  Of course for that kind of money they could have bought their own boat and operated their own ferry service. I guess it's easier to have the taxpayers pay for someone else do it for them.  

[Trash Police] A mandatory recycling program would be too costly to enforce. Would the garbage men have to report newspapers in the trash cans and have the Trash Police drive up from Rockland Key and inspect the trash then serve the owner of the offending garbage with a ticket? Get real; our garbage bills are too high as it is. With the cost of another layer of bureaucracy we would be better off eating our trash.

The Island Grill has the nicest new beer glasses I’ve drunk from in a long time (drunk being the key word). They are thin, shapely and have a curved lip that fits the mouth just right.

“David Allen Coe He was a pretty nice guy too.”  Are you kidding? His own father told me DAC was an a**hole.

[God’s Will be Done] An TV interviewer asked a minister, if God loves us how come he allowed 9/11 and the Holocaust, etc. The clergyman said, “Man is responsible for taking action to protect himself.”

I concluded from his lame answer that God takes credit for good things and man takes credit for the bad things. What a bunch of crap. Send money

[Education] The man thing preventing our kids from getting a good education is the teacher’s unions. They reward lousy teachers just because they’ve been teaching the same old crap the longest and punish newer, brighter, and innovative teachers because they don’t have seniority in the union’s bureaucratic structure.

The Navy’s experimental ship Sea Fighter looks like the Civil War ironclads.

Cloud Computing is the future of computing (Internet). Eventually your operating system will be in the cloud not on your computer. The only thing on your computer will be a browser so you can access the cloud. There will be no more maintenance of your computer or updates or antivirus software needed. It will all be done in the cloud. That’s the way computing should be.

NATIONAL POLITICS

Many of Bernard Madoff’s victims who thought they lost everything could get at least half their money back after the widow of a Florida philanthropist agreed Friday to return a staggering $7.2 billion that her husband reaped from the giant Ponzi scheme.

[Anti-Christ] After reading Sloan’s True Believer post Tuesday I had the thought that Sarah Palin might be the Anti-Christ. Sloan is right; it doesn’t have to be a man.

[TSA Romance Novel] He grasped me firmly but gently just above my elbow and guided me into a room, his room. Then he quietly shut the door and we were alone. He approached me soundlessly, from behind, and spoke in allow, reassuring voice close to my ear. "Just relax." Without warning, he reached down and I felt his strong, calloused hands start at my ankles, gently probing, and moving upward along my calves slowly but steadily. My breath caught in my throat. I knew I should be afraid, but somehow I didn't care. His touch was so experienced, so sure. When his hands moved up onto my thighs, I gave a slight shudder, and partly closed my eyes. My pulse was pounding. I felt his knowing fingers caress my abdomen, my ribcage. And then, as he cupped my firm, full breasts in his hands, I inhaled sharply. Probing, searching, knowing what he wanted, he brought his hands to my shoulders, slid them down my tingling spine and into my panties. Although I knew nothing about this man, I felt oddly trusting and expectant. This is a man, I thought. A man used to taking charge. A man not used to taking `no' for an answer. A man who would tell me what he wanted. A man who would look into my soul and say, "Okay, ma'am," Suddenly I heard a voice, "All done." My eyes snapped open and he was standing in front of me, smiling, holding out my purse. "You can board your flight now."

[Welfare of homosexuals serving openly in the military] Yesterday's writer implies that some of our troops are so homophobic that they will murder gays. I think what really needs to be done is get those murdering soldiers out of the service. I’d rather serve with a gay person than a murderer any day.

I thought it would be a good idea for all of us to also show our gratitude to all our troops abroad. Click on the link, and send them a card.  www.LetsSayThanks.com 

FTR asks repeatedly, what has Obama accomplished in 2 yrs?

1. Created an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to invest in peer-revie­wed manufactur­ing processes.
2. Increase minority access to capital.
3. Require economic justification for tax changes.
4. Implement “Women Owned Business” contracting program.
5. Change standards for determinin­g broadband access.
6. Establish a credit card bill of rights.
7. Expand loan programs for small businesses.
8. Extend and index the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch.
9. Close the “doughnut hole” in Medicare prescription drug plan.
10. Expand the Senior Corps volunteer program.
11. Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions­.
12. Give tax credits to those who need help to pay health premiums.
13. Require large employers to contribute to a national health plan.
14. Require children to have health insurance coverage.
15. Expand eligibility for Medicaid.
16. Expand eligibility for State Children’s Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP).
17. Require health plans to disclose how much of the premium goes to patient care.
18. Establish an independen­t health institute to provide accurate and objective information.
19. In non-competitive markets, force insurers to pay out a reasonable share of their premiums for patient care.
20. Eliminate the higher subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans.
21. Expand funding to train primary care providers and public health practitioners.
22. Increase funding to expand community based prevention programs.
23. Reinstate executive order to hire an additional 100,000 federal employees with disabilities within five years.
24. Increase the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals.
25. Fully fund the Veterans Administration.
26. Assure that the Veterans Administration budget is prepared as ‘must-pass’ legislation.
27. Expand the Veterans Administration’s number of “centers of excellence” in specialty care.
28. Appoint a special adviser to the president on violence against women.
29. Fully fund the Violence Against Women Act.
30. Direct military leaders to end war in Iraq.
31. Begin removing combat brigades from Iraq.
32. No permanent bases in Iraq.
33. Send at least two additional brigades to Afghanistan.
34. Strengthen and expand military exchange programs with other countries.
35. Make greater investment in advanced military air technology.
36. End the abuse of supplement­al budgets for war.
37. Make U.S. Military aid to Pakistan conditional on antiterror efforts.
38. Give a speech at a major Islamic forum in the first 100 days of his administra­tion.
39. Allocate Homeland Security funding according to risk.
40. Create a real National Infrastructure Protection Plan.
41. Increase funding for local emergency planning.
42. Stand down nuclear forces to be reduced under the Moscow Treaty.
43. Appoint a White House Coordinator for Nuclear Security.
44. Initiate a grant and training program for law enforcement to deter cyber crime.
45. Improve relations with Turkey, and its relations with Iraqi Kurds.
46. Launch an internatio­nal Add Value to Agriculture Initiative (AVTA).
47. Create a rapid response fund for emerging democracie­s.
48. Grant Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send money to Cuba.
49. Restore funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne/JAG) program.
50. Establish an Energy Partnershi­p for the Americas.
51. Expand the Nurse-Family Partnershi­p to all low income, first-time mothers.
52. Release presidential records.
53. Require new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliation or contributions.
54. Provide affordable­, high-quali­ty child care.
55. Recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession­.
56. Reduce subsidies to private student lenders and protect student borrowers.
57. Encourage water conservation efforts in the West.
58. Increase funding for national parks and forests.
59. Increase funding for the Land and Water Conservati­on Fund.
60. Expand Pell grants for low-income students.
61. Remove more brush, small trees and vegetation that fuel wildfires.
62. Push for enactment of Matthew Shepard Act, which expands hate crime law to include sexual orientation and other factors.
63. Restore funding to the EEOC and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
64. Reform mandatory minimum sentences.
65. Fully fund the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).
66. Establish ‘Promise Neighborhoods’ for areas of concentrated poverty.
67. Create an artist corps for schools.
68. Add another Space Shuttle flight.
69. Increase spending to prepare for longer space missions.
70. Establish school programs to highlight space and science achievements.
71. Establish special crime programs for the New Orleans area.
72. Rebuild schools in New Orleans.
73. Fund a major expansion of AmeriCorps.
74. Appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer.
75. Provide grants to early career researchers.
76. Work to overturn Ledbetter vs. Goodyear.
77. Create a national declassification center.
78. Create new financial regulations.
79. Increase funding for land grant colleges.
80. Ban lobbyist gifts to executive employees.
81. Sign health care bill into law by the end of the first term.
82. Create new criminal penalties for mortgage fraud.
83. Raise fuel economy standards.
84. Invest in all types of alternative energy.
85. Enact tax credit for consumers for plug-in hybrid cars.
86. Create a ‘Green Vet Initiative’ to promote environmental jobs for veterans.
87. Create job training programs for clean technologies.
88. Require states to provide incentives for utilities to reduce energy consumption.
89. Invest in public transportation.
90. Equalize tax breaks for driving and public transit.
91. Double federal spending for research on clean fuels.
92. Increase funding for the Environmental Protection Agency.
93. Extend unemployme­nt insurance benefits and temporarily suspend taxes on these benefits.
94. Reverse restrictions on stem cell research.
95. End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
96. Today he will sign the START Treaty that reduces Nuclear Weapons and secures loose Nukes.

Not bad for just 2 years!

Halliburton is going to pay off a $35 million bribery case for Dick Cheney.  That’s right, the people that gouged American taxpayers by the billions and got caught and is going to pay that huge bill for a man that was vice president when we went to war.  Now I understand why Halliburton was receiving no bid contracts. Can you imagine how the Republicans would be screaming from the rooftops if Clinton had no bid contractors paying billions for his settlements?  I’m betting that the FOX cable network won’t even mention that in their reporting. I wonder if Rush Limbaugh or his replacement this week will mention it.

[Candy Store] There's a lot of things I really liked about the military. I support it and our troops, but I'd never, ever call it a 'candy store' of benefits.  There's a lot easier ways to earn a living.

The dance team of Obama and Biden. The year in review. http://bit.ly/f85u0x

I think that FTR knows exactly what progressive means.  The progressives are hoping that you are too stupid to know what progressive means.

[Don’t Ask] My dad fought in World War II and was very much against gays in the military.  He tells about having two homosexual guys in his platoon.  He described the situation as "they spent too much time looking at each other's asses and not enough looking out for mine".

All are Marines that gave their lives for you this week. Honor them.

Justin Allen, 23,
Brett Linley, 29
Matthew Weikert, 29,
Justus Bartett, 27
Dave Santos, 21,
Chase Stanley, 21,
Jesse Reed, 26
Matthew Johnson, 21,
Zachary Fisher, 24,
Brandon King, 23,
Christopher Goeke, 23,
Sheldon Tate, 27,

[Don’t Ask] The poster who referred to military service for gays as having access to the candy box was way, way out of line. Only someone who has never served would even come up with such an idea. I served 20 years during the 70's through the early 90's and saw more sexual hanky-panky goings-on among the straight soldiers and family members.

[Fake Money] Jon Stewart the fake news guy talking about fake money. http://bit.ly/dNGTO1

[From the Right] Progressive?  Setting aside yesterdays posted definition of the word “progressive” as being the opposite of stagnant, for my purposes I use the word to describe a subset of persons who hold liberal viewpoints.  It strikes me that all liberal thinking folks share certain basic beliefs. Just as all conservative thinkers share certain beliefs.  I think that political beliefs are like a spectrum, and descriptive terms such as “progressive” are used to define where on that spectrum an individual beliefs fit. For example, liberal thinkers are generally said to be leftist and conservative thinkers are generally said to be rightist.  On the leftist side of the spectrum, beginning with the most liberal beliefs, most would agree that Communist are at the far left with Socialists only slightly more toward the center  of the spectrum.  Progressives occupy a place on the spectrum a only slightly more toward the center from the Socialists. Liberals occupy a spot a little further toward the center, and Democrats are further still toward the center. I believe that all liberal thinkers share a commitment to, and a belief in a strong government that has great impact on and control of the lives of the governed. Liberals want to believe that government is, or should be, omniscient. Most would agree that liberals are convinced that government is the best source for solving societal problems. They strongly believe in redistribution of wealth. They believe that the government has the first ownership rights on wealth. Progressivism dates to the early 20^th century. In fact in 1912 the Progressive Party was founded and became a powerful 3^rd party.  Progressivism is a political attitude favoring or advocating changes or reform through governmental action. Progressivism is often viewed in opposition to conservatism. Progressives believe that absent the assistance of government, it is impossible for an individual to thrive. Liberals and progressives believe that communal comforts outweigh individual rights. It is safe to say that all liberal thinkers view themselves as being idealists. They see themselves as being broad minded, generous, empathetic, and tolerant. I share the belief of many who are convinced that progressivism is inimical to our republic and to democracy itself. Progressives believe that the very words that identify them, “liberal” and “progressive” are proof of their self view of virtuosity. I join with the majority of Americans who believe that our national road to Hell is paved with the misguided good intentions of progressives, liberals, and Democrats. Very recently an election led us a fork in that road, and we turned right, away from the pit.  Today, for the first time ever, most Americans self identify as being conservative.

(Part II) Horrible, frightening, un-freaking-believable. Team Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, the guy who is supposed to be responsible for coordinating and routing every stinking bit of intell that comes through the federal government and making sure that it gets the appropriate attention did not know of the arrest of a dozen M.F. terrorists in Britain day before yesterday.  The Director is the apex, the top of the food chain for getting and using our intell world wide. He is the guy who is supposed to be keeping the MF terrorists in our sights. The terrorists arrested were planning a whole series of murderous attacks in Britain.  How in the hell could Clapper not even know of the arrests. It was all over the news. It is stunningly incredible. Even I knew about it. The news of the arrest of these dozen MF terrorists had been all over the news and the web for nearly a day before James Clapper, Dir of NIA was asked about it in a soft ball interview by  Diane Sawyer  on ABC. Clapper admitted he didn’t know a damn thing about it. Later he explained that he had been very busy working on Team Obama’s flawed START treaty. Bull shit. If this had happened during the Bush admin, the Dems and the media would be screaming that the dolt be fired. Then there would be a hue and cry for a full investigation. They would have been right.

NO NAME ELECTRIC

There’s no gas at the NNK fish camp.  It's a "green” Key so all that's there is free Windex to clean the solar collector on your electric trolling motor. Sorry about that.

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Thursday December 23, 2010

Wednesday December 22, 2010

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus. A must see! http://bit.ly/hEvtJF

[Big Pine residents] No garbage service on Christmas Day or New Years Day. Regular service will resume on Wednesday. Happy holidays from Waste Management.

Tuesday a contractor was mowing the shoulder next to the US1 bike path in one of those big ride-on mowers. Wonderful, but he don't bother to clean up the area before he mowed. There was a ton of plastic bags, Styrofoam containers and other such junk strewn about. Once this guy mowed the grass the path behind him was covered with small pieces of that trash. It pretty much looked as if it came through a grinder. Now there is no way to clean that stuff up and it will just end up washed off into the ocean.

Can the county or whoever deals with that spend one minute and think about the way they do things? There is a word for this sort of thing but I don't want to be rude.

[Raises] During this past budget season Monroe County's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) tried to give us taxpayers the impression that they are fiscally responsible, by making a pathetic case for giving all employees a three percent pay raise.  Their presentation on behalf of County employees was so inept that the BOCC had no choice but to nix the raises.  OMB went as far as bullying employees that were insistent that all employees deserved raises.  Most County employees have not seen a raise in three years and most new employees have been brought in at the very low end of the pay scale regardless of education or level of experience.  However, somehow, OMB found money to give one of their own employees an $8000 a year raise!  Where's the fairness?  What makes this employee more deserving than the others?  Was this employee instrumental in helping OMB pull off their smoke and mirror budget and this is her reward?  The bottom line is that if you can't afford it for all, you shouldn't afford it for a chosen few.

If you missed it, watch last Sunday's 60 Minutes online, there is a sobering piece about the financial crisis looming involving local governments. Local governments have spent way more than they've collected in taxes.  Was Monroe County's OMB really being fiscally responsible?  Monroe County will see the crisis shortly, when the County Administrator begins asking departments, that are already operating on a string and a prayer, to make cuts and lay-off employees.  If I were a Monroe County employee I would have a very lean Christmas and a sober New Year because the fiscal responsibility is nipping at the County's heels.  There is going to have to be big cuts if the County is to stay afloat, even the Sheriff and Fire Department are going to have to  tighten their belt until it hurts.

[Pre-Register For Health Fair] The Dallas MacDonald Senior Center is hosting optional pre-registration for the Florida Keys Health Fair on January 8  between 9:a.m. and 2:p.m.The Senior Center is at 380 Key Deer Blvd, behind the Big Pine Firehouse.  The Fair itself will be held on January 22 at the Methodist and Baptist churches on Key Deer Blvd. in Big Pine Key. Pre-registration helps to avoid long lines on the day of the Fair.

The popular Health Fair features free screening for vision, skin cancer, colorectal cancer, Pap smears, breast exams, bone density, and male genital and rectal exams.  Blood cholesterol testing is available for $5. Bulletin Board

[Sloan] Today's Christmas cheer brings presents for all the good little boys and girls on No Name Key, and switches and ashes for the rest of them. Included in today's egg nog and spice is a testament from John Hammerstrom, who built an off the grid home in the Keys, but the county government wouldn't let him be off the grid, so he hooked up. He lays bare the claims by many on No Name Key that, if they get power out there, their solar collectors will allow them to sell a lot of electricity back to the electric co. - Keys Energy Services, and in that way they will be greener than a Christmas tree and champions of sustainable energy produced by coal and nuke-powered Keys Energy Services. Also included your Christmas stocking today is a report of how the alleged great wicked witch Alicia Putney, all by her lonesome, according to the naughty little boys and girls out there, changed the county's comprehensive plan and land development regulations, so nobody on No Name Key could ever have power, water or sewerage out there. An amazing story that didn't happen exactly like the naughty little boys and girls out there told Santa in their letters to him. Rounding out today's Yule Tide, sort of like a low tide, but a bit hornier, if you keep the Key deer ever in mind, is a puzzled inquiry into the puzzling remarks by County Attorney Suzanne Hutton at the last county commission meeting, over whether a case adverse to the naughty little boys and girls had been vacated or not, and what might or might not lay behind all of that puzzle and Suzanne's recommendation to the County Commission that they authorize her to file a declaratory action in local court on the taxpayer's dime, to see if a judge thinks the county should give the naughty little boys and girls on No Name Key what they told Santa they wanted for Christmas.
 
You can read all about it by clicking on this link: goodmorningfloridakeys.com.

The 2010 Travel Geography Quiz The 2010 Travel Geography Quiz

[Golf Cart Parade] Thanks to all that took the time to deck out their golf carts and ATV's for the lighted golf cart parade last night. They looked really cool!

Are there two Pigeon Keys? The one I can see from the Seven Mile Bridge as I drive by a few times a week never has anyone on it.

$3.50 for a half gallon of milk $1.95 for a crummy candy bar that is half the size it used to be. $3.50 for a gallon of gas. If prices keep rising like they are jus wait until you cannot afford gas, food or going to the doctor.

Tears and hugs greet soldiers arrival in South Florida. A Florida feel good story. Welcome home soldier. http://bit.ly/g7j3s7

Gas prices suck! My 1.25 gallon per mile boat motor loves it. I hate it. It’s time to upgrade. How much is gas at the NNK Fish Camp?

[Burrito Triangle] That name would be too hip for a Mexican restaurant down here.

[Herbal Remedies for Common Ailments] Medicinal herbs can provide natural, safer remedies to dozens of common ailments. This chart shows you more than 75 herbal remedies that do just that. For more information about herbal remedies, check out 75 Safe and Effective Herbal Remedies

What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want.

O Holy Night by the Celtic Women. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy this as much as I did. http://bit.ly/dObfLU

[What's in a name] "Catharine, and that her name is where the Cathars (Catholic) sect of religion got its name"

To pass off fiction as fact, although entertaining, is completely irresponsible.  Enough true history and fact has already been hidden, books destroyed under the fist of "religion", without the need for any more falsities to completely muddy the waters of truth.  Just a tiny bit of research would show that the word Cathar is derived from the Greek Katharos, meaning pure.  The word Catholic is derived from the Greek katholikos, from the phrase kath' holou "on the whole, in general," from kata "about" and of holos "whole".  Who we call The Cathar's, in fact, never used that name for themselves as it was a general term used in a derogatory fashion for all heretics by the Roman Catholic Church.

As for the name Catharine, it was never used as a proper name until the 1600's. Catherine the feminine proper name from M.L. Katerina, from Gk. Aikaterina. The h was introduced in the16c., a folk etymology from Gk. katheros "pure." The initial Greek vowel is preserved in Russian form Ekaterina. As the name of a type of pear, attested from 1640s. Catherine wheel (early 13c.) is named for St. Catherine of Alexandria, legendary virgin martyr from the time of Maximinus who was tortured on a spiked wheel. Her name day is Nov. 25. A popular saint in the Middle Ages, which accounts for the popularity of the given name.

All of what is contained in the post yesterday referring to any link between Cathars and Catholics to the fictional daughter of a fictional person was never mentioned in any bona fide historical account from the time, is nothing more than the fantasy of the author.  And the crime was to present that fantasy as fact, thereby obliterating any semblance of the truth under yet more dung.

[Cantina] In true Mexican tradition, a Cantina is not a nice place for women.  In fact, it is still considered scandalous for a proper lady to be seen in a Cantina.  Like so many segregation barriers, the restrictions are loosing somewhat. I, nevertheless, would not give my gringo eatery that designation since those who have traveled in Mexico think of it as a place men go to imbibe, act macho, and play dominoes, feeling confident their women are home cooking burritos, enchiladas, y chimichangas, or waiting to be escorted to campenaros.

[People Are Awesome] Crazy video of incredible and dangerous clips. You will be amazed. http://bit.ly/b8bI3f

[Rottweilers Chew Car] Eureka, Montana. The car was attacked during the night by the neighbors' Rottweilers running loose. They think their housecat was hiding underneath the car or in the motor, trying to hide.  The cat is fine, though very scared. The car is terrible.

[Shoplifter special]  On a bag of Fritos: “You could be a winner! No purchase necessary. Details inside” 

Build a snowman. http://bit.ly/6kzdbP 

Best oxygen producing plants for growing indoors. http://yhoo.it/i0gd0h

[Surround Sound] As a holiday gift for all you film lovers out there, I officially absolve you from having to deal with stringing pesky wires all over your den to get the surround-sound feel. Among a certain circle, ZVOX is renowned for its high-quality but convenient synthetic surround-sound bars that pump out fantastic home-theater audio with nary a complication. For the mid-level ZBase500, setup goes like this: place the 550 on your TV cabinet; put your HDTV on top of it; plug your audio-out cables from your TV into the 550; plug it in the wall; and turn it on. Done.

You will now experience truly room-filling sound, and never have to think twice about switching receiver inputs or how to keep from tripping over the damn wires running to your rear-channel speakers. If you're rockin' an all-digital TV and Blu-ray, an extra $50 will get you the 550HSD, which has optical audio inputs. (You're welcome.) $350 www.zvoxaudio.com

Actually we’re closer to the sun now than we will be in June by some 3 million miles.  The distance from the sun has nothing to do with the seasonal temperature.  Remember our winter is always someone else’s summer.

[Flying Lawnmower] Just when we thought we've seen it all comes a flying lawn mover! Video

I took a ride down to Geiger Key Tiki Bar the other day to check out the new menu. The new owner's added some items which I wanted to try. They now have oysters on the menu. And I do love oysters. As I looked through the new menu, the first thing I noticed was that everything had gone up in price. When I got to the oysters, I thought there was a misprint. It said the price was twenty dollars for a dozen of oysters on the half shell. It was no misprint. That’s not a very good way to get people back to eating gulf seafood. I hope they think about that after the snowbirds leave. I can get a dozen oysters in Key West for an average of twelve dollars a dozen. The bar and grille at the old La Concha has oysters for 50 cents each during happy hour.  Shame on the new owners.  ~Wvirgiemike4133@aol.com

[Time-Lapse Video of Lunar Eclipse] Monday night presented an ultra-rare treat for astronomy buffs: Not only was there a total lunar eclipse beginning at about 12:30am EST, but the eclipse coincided with the arrival of the winter solstice for the first time in 372 years. http://bit.ly/h0G3DO

[Mandatory recycling program] Set the example yourself by recycling all you can. Encourage your neighbors to do the same. I don't think imposing another law on us is going to fix anything. All they do is create fines to be used by government income to further enforcement against the public. What we need is for morons to quit enacting laws for every damn thing they don't like. We've become a nation of over regulation.

A FL representative loses his daughter in a car crash not wearing her seat belt and we end up being mandated to wear them because of her ignorance and fined if we don't.  Someone should have fined her father for allowing her to be in that car making poor decisions.

Somebody decided we needed a sanctuary to save the reefs in the 1990's and all we got was a multitude of law enforcement agencies with the powers to fine you 6 different ways to Sunday.  The reefs are worse than they were before. The fish are still smaller and the water is not as clear, but we got a ton of know-it-alls who now have us watching everything we do on the water because they are watching us -- with binoculars!

I'm tired of having my Constitutional rights over run by folks who, after they've been victimized, go to "war" to insure it never happens to anyone else. The same goes for “save our planet” freaks who want to impose how they live upon us. 

The changes in the earth are all part of evolution which began when the great meteor struck the earth causing fire and sending carbon into the sky.  It's continued since man crawled from the slime many millennia ago and evolved to make fire that sends carbon into the sky. It will end as well by fire that will send carbon into the sky. 

Stay out of my life and out of my garbage cans or you may find my carbon-coated footprint in the seat of your pants!

I posted a [negative] comment on the big pine key .com about the bartenders at Tiki and I didn’t want my email address put on there. Please take the post off asap!  (Ed: Ok)

Monday  December 20th 2010, the 20th line from the bottom. Beginning with Charmed School, please remove this post. I was unaware my e-mail would be published.

[Letter from Jesus] You forgot number 11 on that list: Worship me and obey my rules or spend eternity burning in a lake of fire. That includes those people who have never even heard of me. No excuses!

To the person who got a horrible haircut. Try Kim at Big Pine Unisex / MM 30. She might even be able to get you through your nightmare faster. Her cuts are awesome. 872-2145.

Oh boy, a toy dog that poops!  http://bit.ly/8ZBUmD

Did everybody see the fabulous lunar eclipse Monday night? Winter Solstice eye candy special. Paradise found again!

[Garden pest alert information] Gumbo Limbo Spiraling Whitefly. Contact Kim Gabel , at the Monroe County Extension Service for help, if you suspect you have this problem in your garden. Gumbo Limbo Spiraling Whitefly - Monroe County Extension Office - UF/IFAS Extension: Solutions for Your Life - Institute of Fo  

This is a an animated card from Santa.  It is personalized to each child.  It is free to do. Go to portablenorthpole.tv and answer the questions.

[Land Taking] State Supreme Court declines to hear Key Largo land owner’s appeal. It looks like Sal doesn’t have much of a chance of getting his land developed as when he bought it.

I believe, I believe!

[AA Basher] Characteristics of the cult called Alcoholics Anonymous

The big book is always right.  If it’s not in the big book it’s not true.   No graduates, you are a cultist for life.   Cult-speak, slogans, mantra, dogma.   Group-think, unity of the cult comes first, not the member.   Personal attacks on critics.   Denigration of competing sects, cults, religions.   Indoctrination of members. 90 meetings in 90 days.   Instant friendship. Love bombing.   Surrender to the cult and its ways.  Confusion, contradictions, hypocrisy, and out-right lies.  Personal testimonies of earlier converts.  Creates a sense of powerlessness, fear, guilt, and dependency upon the group.   You need the cult or you will die.   Black and white thinking.   Thought-stopping language, thought-terminating clichés slogans.   Disturbed leaders and mentally ill followers...old-timers.   Mentoring /sponsoring from unqualified members.  Bind faith.   Insistence the cult is “the only way”.  The cult and its members are special.    The cult implants phobias.   Confession sessions.   The cult takes over the individual’s decision making process.  

You will hear and see all of the above in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on a nightly basis. These characteristics sound just like all the other cults past or present using mind control. Numerous high level courts have already ruled that AA is a religious organization that follows the guidelines of a cult. The web is a powerful tool. Try doing your own research if you have any doubt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lMJLSajuhw

NATIONAL POLITICS 

Let’s bring our soldiers back to guard the country that loves and needs them. I realized the other day that the Muslims stole our peace of mind on 9/11/01 that we will never get back.

[Now You Can Ask] Now it is okay to be gay in the military. My. My. My.  Forty-four years ago I was drafted. It was well before the anti-war demonstrations began. I was part of the buildup of troops and was caught off guard by my induction. We travelled by bus from Connecticut to Fort Dix New Jersey. After medical and aptitude tests we were asked if we were “fagots.” Yes, that’s the word I was asked. Some newbie soldiers who were not gay said yes hoping to get out of the service. If the answer was affirmative you were placed in a barracks nicknamed “Dick’s Barrack.” You were required to live there three weeks where you were observed how you interacted with others.

What many of us old farts don’t realize is how the world has changed. Young men and women are a lot more tolerant that we were. That is a wonderful thing. There are gays in the military today and aren’t jumping troops in the shower or crawling into another’s bed at lights out. Again, the world has changed. That’s a wonderful thing.

[9/11 Responders Bill] The first response, the way I see it, are our "home grown Army of help. We should take better care of them. With all the weapons of mass destruction, and living in fear; we may need them and they won't be there, because of the way we have treated them. They will either be dead or simply disgusted. Americans helping America, is what I was taught. We take care of our own. Never forget 9 / 11. God Bless America.

[Fortune teller] Lets see if I’m good enough to be the Keys’ official fortune teller by reading pot leaves. Well it is the Keys! I see that on this day From the Right guy will post polling numbers that try to make our President look bad. Let’s see just how good I am.

Secretary Napolitano highlighted the Department's 2010 accomplishments in an address to employees - emphasizing the major steps the Department has taken this year to enhance America's capabilities to guard against terrorism; secure the nation's borders; engage in smart enforcement of our immigration laws; safeguard and secure cyberspace; prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters; and unify and mature the Department. Secretary Napolitano Highlights DHS' Major Accomplishments in 2010

[Too Dumb for Military] Nearly 1 in 4 applicants fails military exam. This is very, very sad for the future of America. Nearly 1 in 4 applicants fails military exam (AP)

The country would rather see Sarah for president. Mrs Clinton is all washed up. She is in big trouble. Watch Headline News Wednesday night at 6 O’clock.

[Homophobic] Suppose you’re crouching behind an earthen wall in 120 degree heat with 50 lbs of gear on and a gay guy that knows you don’t approve of that lifestyle or worse rejected his advances, tells you he'll cover you while you go out in harms way; what would you do? Do you think gays really want to go fight? How many gung ho gays do you know? They just want in the candy store with all its benefits.

Ronald Reagan Christmas address delivered to the nation December 23, 1981, 29 years ago this week. A voice that now seems very long ago and far away. http://bit.ly/64jlI9

Between Hillary and Sarah we are in deep dodo. Both are crack pots and the Clintons are into the new world order stuff super deep.

The national debt went up every year President Clinton was in office.

[Homosexuals in the Military] I would rather fight beside a gay soldier than a Muslim soldier any day.

[Know your enemy] I have been contemplating for a couple of days if I should post this, and decided that I must.  In 622 AD the religion of Islam was born based on robbery and murder. Many people are of the belief that this conflict is between religions. Nothing could be further from the truth. I saw a man on a video the other day who was of the same opinion, "Until you know your enemy, you will just end up chasing your own tail."

This conflict is not with Islam, it is with a Theopolitical Belief System. They have been at it for 1388 yrs. Charles Mantel fought huge Moslem armies in 732 AD. Venetian fleets fought Moslem fleets on the Mediterranean in1571 at Lapanto. The Christians lost Constantinople in1453 and Islam promptly renamed it Istanbul and built a great big dome with a half moon on top surrounded by minarets. (They want to do the same thing, as close as possible to ground zero) Germanic, Austrian, and Hungarian Knights fought and defeated the armies of Suleiman the Magnificent at Vienna in 1683. After that the Muslim armies didn't venture west of the Bosporus.  Unfortunately they left many converts in their wake.  At this present time Islamic propaganda in Europe is rampant. All of it is financed by the Saudis, Kuwait, Iran, and the UAE. who are pushing the soft sell about how peaceful, tolerant, and fair Islam is. I don't believe it, do you?

[FTR keeps using that word progressive. I do not think it means what he thinks it means] According to the dictionary progressive is the opposite of stagnant.

Sen. Jim DeMint says the Federal Communications Commission should be renamed the "Fabricating a Crisis Commission," following a vote by the panel's three Democrats to approve proposed rules that amount to a hostile takeover of the Internet by a government agency acting illegally. 

The Internet works just fine without more big government giving us more fees, rules and regulations. None of it to our benefit.

[Don’t Ask] Gay people aren't interested in sleeping with straight people.

[Welfare of homosexuals serving openly in the military] I am well aware that, unlike me, there are real homophobes out there. Sometimes in the heat and confusion of a fire fight there are "accidental" deaths by "friendly fire." This happened in Vietnam for a variety of reasons. If I was a homosexual serving openly in the military I would be concerned about some of the soldiers around me in an actual combat situation. Believe me, having served, I can tell you that there are going to be "incidents." I am not against homosexuals. I am against policies which will be disruptive in accomplishing our mission in Iraq an Afghanistan.  Now, with two wars going on, is not the time to make this change.

Pentagon health plan won’t cover brain-damage therapy for troops. Support the troops! http://bit.ly/hO5X7s

[From the Right] The question posed yesterday concerning what happened to the budget surplus of 2000 was not simplistic. It was not even a real question; it was a statement, an accusation against Mr. Bush.  What follows are facts, not opinion. I urge you to fact check. Mr. Bush inherited a Republican majority in Congress. That majority had actually begun to reduce federal spending, hence the budget surplus by the end of Clinton's last term. But, by the end of Clinton's second term the Republican majority had lost their way and had joined the Democrats in outrageous spending. It must be noted that Clinton in his first term also had a drop in revenue rates and he instituted tax cuts which resulted in increased federal revenue. During Clinton’s terms, tempered by a Republican Congress, revenues exceeded expenditures and a surplus resulted. But, when Mr. Bush took office, in addition to a Republican Congress, he also inherited a recession. That recession had been caused by the 1999-2000 hyper extension of the dot com industry bubble, the scandals of Enron, Worldcom, and major national accounting firms.  The resulting bubble burst and crashes steered us toward recession.   When Mr. Bush took office the economy was in decline. Then the events of 9/11/01 had an immediate and profound additional impact on the economy. It caused the single biggest single day stock crash in history. The impact was so severe that the stock market was closed until 9/17. Consumer spending fell off the charts. Federal revenues continued to tank. During the Clinton admin there had been major cuts in our military. As a result it was necessary to spend huge amounts of money in rebuilding and equipping our military. From 2000-2001 all federal expenses were exploding but federal revenues plummeted. Then the Bush tax cuts of 2001-2003 resulted in a major increase in Federal revenues. The 9/11 attack awoke the sleeping giant of America to the real dangers of terrorism. On 9/14/01 Congress,  in a joint Congressional resolution by near unanimous vote authorized the invasion of Afghanistan which had been home base to the terrorists.  The invasion began in October.  Federal spending soared.   By late 2002 the UN, NATO, the worldwide intelligence community, and nearly every American legislator were certain that the regime of Sadam Hussein presented a clear, real and urgent danger to the world. The evidence was real and convincing that he possessed WMD, and was preparing to use it. On 10/14/02 a substantial majority of Congress authorized the invasion of Iraq. On 3/10/03 we invaded Iraq. The invasion had an immediate negative impact on the world wide economy. US federal revenues again began a decline while military expenses exploded. It goes without saying that the invasion made a huge negative impact on our deficit. In May the ‘03 Bush new tax cuts had been implemented. By 2004 federal revenues again began to soar, and continued to soar until 2007 when they equaled the Clinton end of term revenues. From 2000-2006 Congress was contr