Daylight savings time is like Christmas morning for old people. They get to complain about something other than the weather and Obama.

Dear Editor, I just want to commend you for all you’re doing for your fellow citizens of the Keys. The integrity you’ve shown in “getting out the message” for me and many others is clear. The time and effort you put into this publication, coupled with your benefit to the community, is sincerely appreciated by this reader and occasional contributor (currently on the subject of those onerous and odorous grinder pumps). Once again, thank you and may God bless you. (Ed: Thank you so very much. The best show of appreciation is telling our advertisers that you saw their ad on the CT. It really does help.)

Remember the extra one cent “Infrastructure Sales Tax” that was authorized by Referendum last election? On the ballot it said “with the proceeds used for the following projects: wastewater facilities, and only if those wastewater projects are completed or fully funded, recreation and … (etc).

The tax continues through 2033 and is expected to bring in over $200 million. That buys a lot of conventional gravity sewers, so do not settle for an LPS (grinder pump) sewer that quits and overflows when the power goes out! That tax must be used for reliable sewers here before buying more barren parks in Key Largo that will need higher property taxes forever to develop and maintain. Here is a link to the actual ballot item. Read it yourself. Link 

Tell FKAA and the County in no uncertain terms, “No LPS grinder pump sewers!” Two local petitions can now be found online by searching “Grinder pump petition” tell your neighbors and friends. Get active, it’s your money, how do you want it spent?

I gave some thought to the grinder pump thing and I have a simple plan for my home. My toilet will go direct to the pump. My shower bathtub and sinks, and washer and dryer will have a turn valve to dump on the ground. It will take off 90 percent of the water build up that overflows the grinder pump. It will be just like a switch valve, only it will make my grey water add to the flood water instead of overflowing my not water proof grinder. Pump tank.

During most floods the first thing we see floating up the street is half full gas tanks that people stored next to their flooded over generators. The state thinks we use 165 gallons a day. That might be true if we lived in a city, with dishwashers and 2 loads of laundry every day. They have no format for shorts, tee shirts and flip flops that require a lot less washing machine time.

Here in the Keys we can shower outside with a gallon of water. Bet you can’t do that up north in October!

I was watching these big frigate birds puff up their red mating pouches Saturday out in the mangroves. It was quite a sight.

[“Flight to Communist Cuba”] Get off your high horse. We have direct flights to China, Vietnam and every other Communist country in the world. What’s so different about Cuba? No one quite knows.

One FKAA employee who retired not long ago called FKAA management the “Mutual Admiration Society”: They sit in meetings all morning telling each other what a great job they are doing. Then they all go out together for lunch. He must be right because they have clearly been goofing off instead of diligently working to provide a sensible sewer system. And they get six figure incomes plus great benefits for that? It would be nice to have Board members who did not just believe whatever management tells them.

Halloween was so disappointing this year. I had lots of goodies, but no trick or treaters showed up. 

[Spies Like Us] From thousands of classified documents, the National Security Agency emerges as an electronic omnivore of staggering capabilities, eavesdropping and hacking its way around the world to strip governments and other targets of their secrets, all the while enforcing the utmost secrecy about its own operations. It spies routinely on friends as well as foes, as has become obvious in recent weeks. Link

[Coconut’s Ukulele Orchestra] There is always room for a few more uke’s in the soon to be famous C.U.O. Stop by the 2nd Wednesday of each month, learn some Uke tune’s and the secret C.U.O. hand shake. It’s a fun night. Who can’t use a fun night. Coconut’s Ukulele Orchestra aka CUO

Ranked #1 of 1 nightlife in Big Pine Key. 5.0 of 5 stars 20 Reviews. Type: Bar/ Clubs. Owner description: Coconuts Bar & Liquor Store has been a local bar on Big Pine Key for nearly three decades. We have a full liquor bar, professional regulation pool tables, video games, dart boards, beer pong, Foosball and cold AC. If you’ve never been here before or you’re on your way to Key West, stop in and check us out! Thanks!-The Coconuts Family

Where do some of you people live? Not in the Keys. The Kickin Back, formerly the Owl Food Store is not on Sugarloaf. Cudjoe instead. How can you not know that? You have to drive past it on your way to and from Key West. Whoever wrote that is not from around here. And Deer Editor, how could you not know about a store right on the highway that has been on Cudjoe for more than 25 years. How? I am confused. It is a fixture of the lower keys.

[Figures of Speech] As illustrated by Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Link

[Help Wanted] Coconuts Bar and Package can use a weekend morning clean-up person. If you’re interested, stop by and fill out an application. It’s a nice job for the right person. Classified Ads > Help Wanted

You know you are getting old when you think wearing a Speedo is sexy!

Pear Energy allows you to power your home with solar and wind energy no matter where you live. Link

Here is an interesting history of our Government spying on us. Link

[Most of What You’ve Heard of Cancer is Wrong] George Johnson. The meat of the interview begins at 11:15. Video

[ACA security “Unacceptable”] Very easily hacked. Roll out without enough testing has compromised peoples privacy. Doesn’t even display properly on mobile devices, in short, it’s an abomination. Link

The Key West Poetry Guild, tonight, Sunday Nov. 3, 2013, upstairs at Blue Heaven, will feature Elizabeth Thomas, Big Pine Key resident, beginning at 7 pm.

Elizabeth is a widely published poet, performer, teacher and advocate of the arts. The author of two poetry collections and one book on writing for youth and teachers, she has performed her work throughout the United States. She’s been a member of three Connecticut National Poetry Slam teams and in 1998 was a member of the U.S. team that traveled to Sweden.

Much of her energy and time is devoted to designing and teaching writing programs for schools and organizations in many parts of the country. These programs promote literacy and the power of written and spoken word. As an outstanding advocate of youth in the arts, Elizabeth is a coach and organizer with Brave New Voices: International Youth Poetry Slam and Festival. She is also the founder of UpWords Poetry, a company dedicated to promoting programs for young writers and educators, based on the belief that poetry is meant to be heard out loud and in person.

[FKAA] One of my wife’s friends on Cudjoe Key returned from a shopping trip a few weeks ago to find her street being torn up for sewer line installation to tie in grinder pumps; she also mentioned that the work was commencing a month earlier than scheduled. She was asked by the contractor where she wanted her grinder pump located and she reluctantly pointed out an area near the front of her home. He told her that would not be a good place to put it due to the stench the grinder pump would emit (during operation)and recommended she locate it some distance from the front of her house. She was almost in tears as she told my wife this story and ask, “Just because I have no one living across the street, how can they do this to me?”…and so it begins.

FKAA and Monroe County Commission: Just dump the damned pumps! 

[Big Brother Apple] Look out iPad and iPhone users! Seems like Apple is now mandating that you sync from your computer through iCloud, instead of from your computer to your device directly.

As we all have learned, Apple and other cloud services have to comply with the NSA PRISM project so now they get a chance to snoop in on your contacts, calendars and other undefined information (like more specific local wifi locations iOS devices store) also without your permission.

The NSA uses your data to create a spider web of your contacts and then who those people contact and so forth. The more friends you have, the more likely one of them will be connected to something you didn’t know you were associated with. It’s a witch hunt of the electronic age.

The NSA already has one’s previous calls and general location data directly from the cell carriers, so now grabbing one’s calendar information they also will know where you’re going to go in advance.

You might not have anything yet to fear from the NSA and the other agencies it gives it’s discovered information to (FBI, ICE, ATF), but what about hackers, criminals and business or political competitors?

Someone tapping into your iCloud sync to include poisoned illegal images or unsavory characters, pictures of criminal scenes? If Google and Healthcare.gov can be hacked right into their private networks and data centers and nobody knows till later, you really don’t stand a chance.

Sid Brown as Blu Reed for Halloween. Last year Lou Reed was at Little Palm Island and left immediately in a huff over some perceived slight.

Sexual education classes in school should just be listening to a baby cry for five hours straight while watching the same cartoon on repeat.

[Scary Carrie] Telekinetic coffee shop surprise. Video

What a mess so many folks are
They come here from places, most of them far
Chasing the sun, the water, the sand
Only to end up with a drink in their hand
The lovely sunrise the beautiful sunset
The drunks don’t care, they can only forget
What day could it be….my heavens who knows
The rum and the vodka, to the liver they go
Brains are now jelly guts rotting away
6 DUI’s who’s counting anyway
No place to sleep no teeth to brush
They don’t care if they stink to happy hour they rush
Gee ain’t the Keys grand so many people ask
No expectations just a hammock and flask
Don’t eat for a week just bitch and moan
Always have money for cigs and a phone
How grand the drunks think they must be
Just pass out now and sleep in your pee

Best Big Pine costume ever!

[Killing The Reef] In 1957, at the southern base of mainland Florida, government engineers dug the Buttonwood Canal to drain the area north of Flamingo and provide easy boat access to the mangrove back county.  For the 1st time in history, the canal allowed fresh water, laden with decaying sediments, to flow directly into Florida Bay.

The results were disastrous.  It all but destroyed the fishery in Florida Bay, yet state biologists balked at admitting the truth, or taking responsibility.  It wasn’t until 1982 that the canal was finally plugged.

I think the County workers should have taken spelling lessons before painting this sign on the fire station’s curb on Big Pine.

[NY Obamacare site DDOS hacked] 10 million+ hits, but only 1.1 million potential customers. Link

[Navy planes] NAS Key West Airfield Operations Final Environmental Impact Statement. The Department of the Navy, after carefully weighing public comments, as well as the strategic, operational, and environmental effects of the proposed action, has announced the signing of a Record of Decision (RoD) for the NAS Key West Airfield Operations Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The RoD announces that Alternative 2 – the Navy’s preferred alternative – will be implemented.

The implementation of this alternative will result in the gradual transition from legacy aircraft to next generation aircraft and minor alteration of existing facilities to meet requirements for next generation aircraft. In addition, Alternative 2 provides the Navy with the flexibility to accommodate carrier air wing detachment training events when primary carrier air wing training locations on the U.S. East Coast are unavailable. Additional carrier air wing Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) operations would vary annually based on availability of the primary training locations, but could total up to 4,500 additional annual operations. As there would be no increase in other flight operations, total annual airfield operations could equal up to approximately 52,000 operations.

The Record of Decision is available at Link

[Flights to Cuba] Not to many people I talk to know of any reason why we can’t just fly to Cuba. Was it for something the former president said sixty years ago?

[Diana Nyad Statue] The Mayor of Key West wants to have a monument made in Diana Nyad’s honor, to put at Smathers Beach. Exactly for what? Did she save a human life, did she save an animal, did she raise lots of money for the community, did she help children in need, did she raise money for aids, did she protect a helpless animal or human? I’m confused, a monument for a personal goal? She went for a swim for her own personal goal, that is not a hero.

I was raised visiting monuments of people and animals that saved lives, real heroes, real history making events. A swim from Cuba to Key West? How about taking that money and giving it to the ASPCA so the animals will have a clean and dry place to live until a forever home is found. How about giving it to Wesley House so they can help the children in need, how about giving the money to the Boys and Girls Club so working parents have a safe place to put their child while they work for the Government, Mr. Mayor and all the hospitality places that keep the tourist happy. How about giving the money to the Veterans so they get what they need and deserve. Why block nature, the beauty of the Keys, the reason people come here, for a monument of a swimmer? She got to be Grand Marshal at Fantasy Fest, isn’t that enough? Set up a scholarship at the College in her name, if you think what she did was so fantastic. I see a lot of women her age and in worse shape still working. I say that’s an accomplishment. Really Mr. Mayor, a monument? The air must be really thin, way up there on your high horse. Come down a notch and see who the real heroes are.

[Charlie the Produce Guy] I had such a sad shock this morning when I visited the produce section at our local store. Many times I had asked employees where Charlie the produce man was and I was always told it was his day off. Finally today I spoke with someone and they said he no longer worked for WD. I do not know why, but I do know that Charlie will be missed. Not only did he care deeply about his job, he cared even more about knowing is customers. He always kept up with my family, the death of my mother, kids going back to college. Charlie always had sympathetic yet wise advice. Though out the years, I learned he had retired a few times but preferred to work. I know he put many children and many grandchildren through college on his nickel , that was his gift to his kids. As I said, I do not know the particulars, but I do know that Charlie is not there. They will have a heck of a time finding someone that cares as much as Charlie did about the produce and his friends. Charlie, if there is a chance you see this post. Please give me a call, I would love to take you out for lunch . Christy 305-395-1156

“Like all of us we have skin in the game.” I gather that FTR is a socialist when he has “skin in the game.” The FEMA flood insurance program subsidizes flood insurance for those lucky enough like us to reside near the ocean in a flood prone area. The perception of the program is welfare for the rich, although we know we, barely getting by homeowners, will be devastated if these increased premiums take effect.

FTR claimed the sequester hurt very little. He seems to like that the food stamp program is being cut; he believes in reducing government debt except when it affects his backyard.

Before you slam me back, I want you to know I know who the Congress-persons are who filed this bill. Some folks just want it only their way. 

This guy can sing. He’s a smooth operator. He’s a lot of things for sure. One of the things he is not, is a good President. He has not a clue on how or what to do. I must say, he does look cool. When it comes to the real deal, he Obombed it!

Remember when Nancy Pelosi  said, “We have to pass it, to find out what’s in it” A physician called into radio show and  said, “that’s the definition of a stool sample”. That pretty well sums it up.

I was just now watching Fox News and in a very subdued, reluctant way they were forced to announce that yet another Taliban top leader has been whacked by a President Obama authorized drone strike in Pakistan.  This latest hit was on the guy who was behind the killing of several CIA agents,  as depicted in the film “Zero Dark Thirty”,  and also the NYC Time Square bombing.  Not bad for a guy who Fox News claims is the most ineffective President ever.

There’s a new term being used, “You Obama’ed it” It’s used to replace “You blew it” or any one of a number of phrases that represent a total disaster.

Its great to see that while we argue about healthcare and quite a few silly things our military isn’t straying from their missions of killing Americas enemies. Some on here proclaim we are in fact losing the war against terror but that’s not the view I get.

Another Taliban leader has been removed as a threat. A drone strike has killed Hakimullah Mehsed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. This is a major blow to the Taliban. this dirtbag was on our countrys most wanted terrorist lists. belief was that he was the organizer of the attack on a C.I.A. base in Afghanistan. There was also a $5 million bounty on his head. At 1 time he was believed dead but now he is for sure. This doesn’t mean of course that the war against terror is over because he will just be replaced by our next target but its good to know our intelligence and war planners are not getting caught up in political theater like our countrys politicans on both sides of the aisle.

Many on here whine about our President being weak on terror but you better believe no matter what part of the world they are in they duck and cover when they hear an aircraft motor.

Im glad our President doesn’t gloat about these incidents and the C.I.A. doesn’t say much because theres no gloating about killing Americans enemies theres just typical American resolve to get the next one. That’s the most important one there is. Well done. To the folks that think Americas seen the last of its proud days all I can say is “Poppycock”. We are who we are and have always been and will be. Its our nature.

Im glad our President is using the drone tool the way President Clinton set it up to be.

[Sarcasm] More true facts I found on the internet. Because if it’s not true they can’t put it on the internet, It’s a law. “Ann Coulter has televised orgasm during anti-Obama tirade” Link

Hey Putin. Now after the Israelis bombed and took out your supplied missile launchers in Syria I guess you and the American Conservatives can declare another huge victory in your war against our President and Israel.

Syria has also destroyed the majority of its chemical weapons manufacturing equipment and the Russians seemed to have slipped back into their talks of bluster and dreams of mattering. Guess its back to the Bengazi rhetoric for the right.

I don’t often talk to Obama supporters but when I do I usually ask for large fries and extra ketchup!

[Conspiracy Man’s Martial Law Signs] To all who spout utter nonsense before actually researching such bogus claims, several links have been provided for you to actually keep from totally embarrassing yourselves.

I’ve seen this crap spouted by many on both sides of ideology spectrum but overwhelmingly on the right. I am living in a hard right world and the insane things these people think are gospel is beyond rational comprehension.

The chart on the left, the US Labor Force Participation Rate. The blue line represents the able bodied labor force being utilized (in percent).

The red line represents estimates where it should be based upon the baby boomer generation retiring and leaving the workforce. Many started early when they turned 60 back in 2001, but government figures on age 65 at 2011.

The gap between the blue and red lines represent 25 million Americans (and increasing) who need full time work and can’t get it.

The chart on the right, what party was in control of the government at what time.

The snopes.com website is really www.snopes.gov!

There is a reason and a sequence of events that have led us to the looming fantastical increase in our Keys flood insurance rates and the rates of all flood potential properties in America..

The villain is the Waters-Biggert act. (aka H.R. 1309 Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2011). Congress enacted the Waters-Biggert flood insurance legislation. It was signed into law by Obama on July 6, 2012.

The bill, as written, seemed to have little warning that it would lead to ruinous rate increases for residents of coastal communities.  The “Waters” in the title is the very well know Democrat Congress person, Maxine Waters. The “Biggert” was a Republican Congress person from Illinois who has since been defeated. Maxine Waters is now backwatering (pun intended). She is urging that the bill not be enforced.

The bill passed through the House and the Senate with only moderate opposition. The single biggest voice of opposition was Conservative Republicans who voted against the bill. The reason for little opposition was probably the fact that the bill had been folded into a larger transportation bill and the “Restore” bill. But Conservative legislators voiced concern that the bill went too far and too quickly. Some urged an “affordability clause”. None appeared.

The carrot that was irresistible to the legislators was the “Restore” component. That component transfered 80 percent of Clean Water Act fines from the 2010 BP oil spill to the five affected Gulf States. Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu warned of the dangers of the flood insurance hikes, but nonetheless she voted for the bill and the rate hikesd. It’s worth noting that yesterday, the Tampa Bay Times reported that our Republican Senator Marco Rubio joined other Conservative Senate Republicans in voting against the bill, but Democrat Senator Bill Nelson voted for it.

The proponents of the bill claimed that its passage was vital to bring “stability” to the national flood insurance program. One noted that the program had lapsed 18 times in previous years.

The bill had a powerhouse of backers that included the American Insurance Association, American Land Title Association, Building Owners and Management Association, CCIM Institute, Chamber SWLA, Council of Insurer Agents and Brokers, The Financial Services Roundtable, Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, Institute of Real Estate Management, International Council of Shopping Centers, Manufactured Housing Institute, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Home Builders, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, National Association of REALTORS, National Ready Mix Concrete Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But now many of legislators who voted for the bill are now voting for legislation to delay implementation of the bill.  According to the New Orleans Times Picayune, The House of Representatives has passed legislation delaying implementation of the bill. So far the Senate, under the leadership of Democrat Harry Reid has not budged..

Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, said: “Unfortunately, (the act) has been implemented in a way by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to make the insurance unaffordable…….”

As in all items of legislation, there is the prospect of flexibility in the enforcement of the law. We can recall that Mr. Obama has declined to enforce segments of various laws that he disagrees with. In this instance, Mr. Obama, can, with the stroke of a pen delay implementation or enforcement of this legislation.

The Waters-Biggert act was sold as being a fiscal necessity to rescue the National Flood Insurance program.  But Garret Graves, Chair of Louisiana’s Gov. Bobby Jindal’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, recently reported that the flood insurance program hasn’t been the drain on taxpayers claimed by proponents of Waters-Biggert. He said the program collected $65.3 billion in premiums since 1978, but only paid out $56.4 billion to policyholders.

Let’s get behind the efforts of Republicans Governor Rick Scott, Rep. Holly Raschein, Rep. Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, Rep. Manny Diaz, Senator Marco Rubio  and politicians of all stripes who are working hard to drive a stake in the heart of this bill which will bleed our homeowners and business people dry. A tip of the FTR fedora to those politicos and to FIRM.

The good news is that late last week The Miami Herald reported: “A bipartisan group of legislators from the U.S. House and Senate have reached an agreement to delay flood insurance rate increases for at least four years for millions of homeowners.”  Delaying legislation had already passed in the House in June. Now we will have to wait and see if the Democrat Senate blocks that agreement.

The bad news is FEMA head, Craig Fugate, Obama appointee, is quoted as saying that he intends to enforce the “letter of the law.”

Part 2) While the Obamacare roll out is devouring nearly all of the news-o-sphere, the world is slipping further and further into turmoil.  Now Iraq is asking us to provide them with assistance to battle the ever growing AQI. That nation is wracked with deaths by terrorist attacks. More than 8,500 terrorist attacks killed nearly 15,500 people last year. Please recall that Mr. Obama failed to negotiate a Status of Forces agreement with Iraq after the end of the Iraq war. Such an agreement would likely have tamped down AQI. Look for Iraq to soon become a total client state of Iran, and yet another home base for AQI and the sundry other Muslim fundamentalism fanatics.

Mr. Obama has been dumped from first place in The Most Powerful Man in the World ranking to second place. Forbes magazine has elevated Putin to the Big Mac Daddy of the world power seat.  Putin’s ability to bring Syria to surrendering its chem warfare supplies when Obama failed is largely responsible.

Israel is furious with us because the White House leaked that it was the Israeli’s who launched an air strike into Syria. They expect that Syria will now be empowered to launch an attack on Israel.

Iran’s elites have upped their hatred for the US by launchin even more “Death to America” rhetoric. “The slogan Death to America is the symbol of strength and determination of the Iranian nation against the dominance of the United States, which is an oppressive and untrustworthy nation,” said the Revolutionary Guards on their official website. No,  even Leon Panetta is reporting that we may have to use military force against Iran. It has just been reported that Iran will likely have enough fissile material to make a nuke within two weeks.

The Chinese now have the military and naval assets to launch nukes against us. They recently published a news story describing their targeting goals and methods. Welcome back to the Cold War.  Thank you Mr. Obama.  Deer Friends. sleep well.

CLIMATE CHANGE

A ‘meme’ is a minimal cultural entity that is subject to selective pressures during replication between human minds, its main medium. A meme can be thought of as the cultural equivalent to a gene in biology; examples are a speech, a piece of writing (‘narratives’), a tune or a fashion. A memeplex is a co-adapted group of memes that replicate together and reinforce each other’s survival; cultural or political doctrines and systems, for instance a religion, are major alliances of self-replicating and co-evolving memes. Memetics101: memeplexes do not only find shelter in the mind of a new host, but they will change the perceptions and life of their new host.

Whatever is happening in the great outdoors regarding actual climate, inside, truly inside, in the minds of men that is, overwhelming evidence indicates that Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming is a self-sustaining narrative that is living off our mental capacity, either in symbiosis or as an outright cultural parasite; a narrative that is very distanced from physical real-world events. The social phenomenon of CAGW possesses all the characteristics of a grand memetic alliance, like numerous similar structures before it stretching back beyond the reach of historic records, and no doubt many more cultural creatures that have yet to birth.