I remain perplexed why the stop lights were installed at the little hump bridge on Wilder Rd? There has been no work started and weeks have passed. If some one from D.O.T.could share the thought process behind this it would greatly appreciated. I am so confused.

Whatever happened to Sloan and his fairyland? Did he dream himself out of existence? Isn’t he running for any office this week?

[Sea Lice] My wife was stung by what we believe was sea lice twenty-some odd years ago. She still has the effect, which is severe itching around the belly area. She treats it with a non alkaline soap. This keeps it under control, but will break out if not ‘cleansed’ in such a manner.

Old man’s love song to his late wife is brought to life by recording studio execs. Link

I’m floating in the clouds.

[“Mitchell Denker passes”] In the old days he told me whenever his answering machine said he was out of the country, he was on his boat parked on the other side of Christmas Tree Island. I miss the days when you could find out what the locals were doing. Like who just had a baby, who just left town or returned, who was going to open a business. Just what we locals were up too. Now I can learn about cell phone, recipes and other stuff on the CT. (Ed: That was my anchor he borrowed to secure his boat, but he never returned it no matter how many times I asked.)

[Privacy] Government agents in 74 countries demanded information on about 38,000 Facebook users in the first half of this year, with about half the orders coming from authorities in the United States.

Maps that will help you make sense of the world. Some of them I skipped right over because they gave me that feeling that an annoying ideologue was urging me to get outraged about something. Link

Well, this is as close to the beach as I’m going to get.

[Genetically Modified Grain] Vitamin A deficiency also depresses the immune system, raising overall mortality from other causes such as diarrhea, measles, and pneumonia. For these diseases the additional toll is estimated at 1 million preventable deaths a year, or around 2,700 per day, mostly among children younger than 5.

Greenpeace, with its $335 million annual revenue, has nearly four times more funding than the entire International Rice Research Institute (most of whose work involves conventional plant breeding). Greenpeace has waged a decade-long campaign against golden rice because it involves transgenic technology. The scientists at IRRI insist that there was no other way to get genes for beta-carotene into rice.

Greenpeace’s scaremongering includes the regular production of glossy reports spreading unscientific myths about golden rice. In China last year it successfully created a fake media scandal which landed some of the key Chinese project scientists in jail. Greenpeace Southeast Asia spokespeople took to the media to speak in support of the destruction of the golden rice trial in the Philippines.

Don’t lecture me about corporate evil when a $335 million multinational “nonprofit” is fomenting violence against those who are trying to save kids.

Today in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr.  made his “I have a dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom event in Washington, D.C. Video

[Obamacare Primer] Mental Health Services. Many plans don’t cover mental or behavioral health services, but that will change under the law. Patients may be billed around $40 per session. In some states, though, coverage may be limited to a set number of therapy visits per year.

[Hackers] The websites of the New York Times and Twitter are still suffering problems related to a damaging hack carried out on Tuesday. The newspaper and social network were hit after their domain name details were maliciously edited by hackers. 

Sea level didn’t change much for nearly 2.000 years judging from sediment cores. It began to rise in the late 19th century, as Earth started to warm. If sea level continues to track temperature, it could rise three feet or more by 2100. The great unknown: the future of the ice sheets.

Local measurements of sea level with tide gauges became common after 1880; satellites began global measurements in 1992. They’ve shown a clear acceleration: At an eighth of an inch a year, sea level is rising twice as fast as it was a few decades ago. This acceleration is believed to be due to the planets use of fissile fuels.

Splash Mob poolside. Ravel’s Bolero. Video

[Coconuts] The very best drink prices, day and night. Video games, darts , Brunswick billiard tables , a bunch of big flat screen TV’s. Over 30 years serving Piners. We must be doing something “Right at the Light”. Downtown Pine Key.

[“Captain Doom and Gloom — No wonder the USA is the laughing stock”] Yo, Dumb and Dlum, the USA is a laughing stock because the world laughs at those like you! as I am now.

Bobby Riggs, the Mafia and the Battle of the Sexes: ESPN says Bobby Riggs threw the game. it turns out the infamous battle of the sexes—in which the 30-year-old Billie Jean King routed the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs—wasn’t a legit match. Allegedly, the fix was in:

“Mr. Ragano was emphatic,” Shaw recalls. “Riggs had assured him that the fix would be in — he would beat Margaret Court and then he would go in the tank” against King, but Riggs pledged he’d “make it appear that it was on the up and up.” Link

[“Mitchell Denker, the lawyer for the Big Pine 29 drug bust died”] Every few years a woman posts on CT looking for information about her mother, who was possibly the girlfriend of the Big Pine 29 lawyer.  I wonder if that Mitchell Denker was that lawyer, and if he knew what happened to that woman’s mother.  I think about that woman’s posts regularly.  How sad.  I wonder if she ever found any peace.

[Jesus] As I was driving home this week thinking about all the crap going on in the world, I saw a yard sign that said:   NEED HELP? CALL JESUS  1-800-005-3787   Out of curiosity and desperation, I did. A Mexican showed up with a lawnmower!

[Grinder Pumps] Look for a connection between the pump manufacturer and somebody at FKAA.  That same pump company just cut a deal with Key Largo wastewater, too. And the sales rep told KL Wastewater that they already had enough pumps on hand to allow KL Wastewater to piggyback on FKAA’s order, to get a better price.

[Success] It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings.

My kind of Mini.

[Global Warming] This summer, the US has experienced the fewest number of 100 degree readings in a century. The five hottest summers (1936, 1934, 1954, 1980 and 1930) all occurred with CO2 below 350 PPM.

CO2 went over 400 ppm this year, indicating that heat waves and CO2 have nothing to do with each other. Scientists who claim otherwise are either incompetent, criminal, or both. Link

[Miley Cyrus] She always has pole and lap -dancing to fall back on.

(Ed: To the poster who informed us of a broken link–thank you. I lost your email so had to reply this way. Where do lost emails go? Sock Heaven?)

[Cell Phone Service 10 cents a minute”]  It’s  NET10 baby!   All over the country a flat 10 cents a minute, calls & texts.  Greatest  deal out there. Net 10’s other vest deal – flat $50. month for unlimited everything anywhere in the country.

[Shark Key sewer deal was not fraud. It was bubbaism”] To run a government that allows people to be charged by a company at different rates for the same services, in not business, but bubba theft. A public service, if the FKAA is such, has to be totally equal in billing all people, not letting some pay for others. Oh, I forgot about welfare, food stamps, and all the other freebies, sorry!

[“Kilts”]  Don’t knock kilts.  Any guy tough enough to wear one is tough enough to defend it, in spades.

Dick Yuengling Jr. said at a Pennsylvania Press Club appearance that the state would attract more businesses if it adopted a right-to-work policy that would make it more difficult for unions to organize.

Drink more Yuengling beer!

Chivalry was a system, in which obligations fell on women as well as men. If you wish for men to behave as they did in past times, you may have to live with women behaving as they did in past times, too. In the age of Miley Cyrus and Sandra Fluke, that doesn’t seem especially likely. 

[Cell Phone Service] I think I have the best cell phone deal – unlimited text, unlimited domestic and international calls, unlimited data, global coverage, free iPhone 5 – all for $0, yes, it’s a company phone with unlimited personal use too.

How Canadians make babies! Link

[Cell Phone Service] I have an AT&T Go Phone that is a $9.95 small flip-phone with camera from Radio Shack.  It costs me $100 a year for 400 minutes that roll over from year to year.  The battery lasts a really long time if you don’t turn the phone on.  It has always worked anywhere I have been in the Keys.

[Hot as Hell] Dr. Sally Baliunas discusses the history of people’s reactions to extreme weather. When extreme weather in Europe centuries ago made people fearful, it led to many people being tortured and killed for “weather cooking” with the help of Satan. Video

Deer FTR, It is obvious that you are passionate about your Regressive political views. Even though I don’t share your views, I respect the time and effort you put into your posts to recruit others to your Regressive viewpoint. What I can’t understand, however, is how you can jeopardize your efforts by continually stooping to the childish level that you put forth in your postings. For example, in the middle of your views on the Syria crisis you just couldn’t stop yourself from criticizing the President of the United States’ — shoes! Really? Who cares? I seem to remember you defending Gov. Romney when a poster criticized him for owning car elevators. Is it possible that car elevators are okay but expensive shoes are not? Or is it just that your hatred for our President is so strong it has blinded you in some way? Do you understand the hypocrisy and pettiness? I can understand why talk show TV and radio hosts play this game (for the money). As for you, it just makes you seem small. If you want to be taken seriously, stop the personal stuff and stick to the important issues that our country faces.

Free speech – not mean speech.

[Iraq Déjà vu] John “Bomb Everyone” McCain was on Squawkbox this morning calling for military action in Syria. When it was pointed out to him that Arabs on the ground don’t believe the Syrian regime used chemical weapons, and that this was just another false “weapons of mass destruction” scare like we did in Iraq, he dismissed it and said Syria did use gas. When it was pointed out to McCain that the Arab League nor the UN could find no proof–as yet–that the Assad government used gas and that it was widely believed that al Qaeda was the culprit, McCain dismissed it out of hand and wanted immediate military action to show the US’s credibility.

McCain couldn’t offer proof that Syria used the gas and not al Qaeda. He also said the mideast is about to blow up because we removed our troops from Iraq.

FTR nailed it regarding Islamic irredentism and this administration’s clumsy approach in dealing with it.

Having said that, the lukewarm handling of “The Clash of Civilizations,” as aptly described by author Ben Huntington, goes back several administrations, including Bush I & II and the wider western world…yes, the one that awarded Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize.

Once we are given a clue as to why the west is kowtowing to Islam, it may help us understand what strategy is being employed and for what ends.

Till then, our pussy-footing around the issue only bolsters their resolve as they perceive us as weak and meek–no differently than leftists who still believe that capitalists will eventually fall on their own sword resulting from inevitable dialectics.

Obama, Kerry, Bush et al discuss Syria on Facebook. Link

That Muslim sicko who shot the troops in Texas should not be shot or hung, but boiled in pig fat!

Because it served the purpose: Candidate Obama: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

I think I know why the FTR guy and the other right wing geezers are so quiet about the NSA controversy even though it happened on Obama’s watch. These guys are still stuck in 1960’s backlash politics and are confused about what they should say.

[Syria] FTR does not seem to be very informed when it comes to actions against Syria. He stated that since Obama made statements against Syria and action should have already taken place. FTR doesn’t realize that any actions that takes place against Syria could lead to Syria retaliating against our ally Israel. Syria has already said the same. How does FTR know Israel hasn’t asked America to hold off until they themselves can better prepare for any attacks? Iran and Syria are allies and that should be considered also. You don’t attack any country trying to be a tough guy when the retaliation would be having an ally of yours attacked and another countrys citizens would be the ones dying for your actions unless you get approval from that country. I just read this morning where Israel is still trying to get gas masks and other material for defense to its citizens. Maybe some posters are not as well versed on issues other then (America bad/Obama bad) we read daily. Take a second and visit the Jerusalem Post online paper and you will see Israel is preparing which means we don’t jump the gun and leave their citizens in harms way. The republican regressives need to wipe the war lather off their chins and wait until our allies are also ready.

Who else but the right could blame our President for whats going on in Syria. The “Blame America first” crowd of the right is in full force. Black unemployment is high in inner cities = Obamas fault. Egypt voters elect their own countrys President that we didn’t like =Obamas fault.

Here the rest of the things Obama has to be responsible for in far out right world.
Chicago Black Sox throw the world series = Obamas fault
Swine flu epidemic =Obamas fault
Couldn’t find my car keys this morning = Obamas fault
Didn’t catch any fish today =Damn Obama
Republican vice presidential candidate Donald Trump being sued for running a University scam = definetly Obamas fault.

We get it. Bad news is all Obamas fault. Great American news had nothing to do with. The American republican Taliban at its best. Hate America first should be the republican motto.

Obama can start a war in Syria just by consulting with Congress as required in the War Powers Act.

Mike Flynn, in Brietbart, the other day wrote an article about the Washington Post that took a look at the books of the federal government. WaPo noted that federal spending had actually declined by about $2 billion since the Republicans and Republicans of Tea Party inclination got control of Congress in 2010. Basically that is not a great deal of money, but if we look at where spending would have been without Republican/Tea Party austerity, our spending would have skyrocketed.

Based on a decade-long trend-line, the influence of the Republicans/Tea Party didn’t just trim $2 billion from the budget but avoided almost $500 billion in new debt.

Since the turn of the new century, government spending has increased an average 6% a year. Applying this historical trend to the Post’s 2010 baseline number indicates that federal spending would be about $430 billion higher than it is today. Even this might be underestimating the impact of the Tea Party revolution.

In the four years that Democrats had complete control of Congress, federal spending increased by an average of 9% a year. If the Democrats had maintained control of Congress after the 2010 elections, this trend would put spending over $4.1 trillion today. All things being equal, the federal debt would be $700 Billion higher than it is today.

It’s a sad fact that we are nowhere close to tackling our fiscal problems. People can scream about earmarks, subsidies and wasteful spending until they are blue in the face, but those are almost a rounding error in terms of our budget. More than two-thirds of all federal spending is on entitlements or other redistribution schemes. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid consume almost all federal tax dollars. Those programs cry out for reform.

Outside of those three programs, our government spent $1.2 trillion last year. That includes the military, highways, FBI, the courts, farm programs, food stamps and all the federal agencies. Our deficit last year? $1.1 trillion. Essentially, we spent all federal tax revenue writing checks to people and borrowed money to fund the things we think government ought to do.

So, yes, we have a long way to go, but we’ve got our toe in the door. There is no question but that Republicanism and the Tea Party revolution is having a big impact. Our nation needs us to push our way through the door and to set our national house in order. 65% of likely voters believe that Congress should cut spending in order to help the economy. Perhaps that’s why Republicans lead Democrats in generic Congressional races.

Part 2) JFK is an iconic Democrat. He is generally revered by all Democrats. I respectfully suggest that all CT left fielders take the time to listen to his speech that follows. Video