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September

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Letters to the editor with pictures since 2002. Published on Big Pine Key’s garbage days, Tuesdays and Fridays.

[Tax Evasion] I find it absolutely horrific hearing the candidate for Monroe County Tax Collector, Sam Steele, is having his “Meet and Greet” hosted by tax dodgers! The owners of Sudzy’s Laundromat on Big Pine Key, the host site, are the masters of tax evasion. They haven’t paid taxes on most of their properties in years. A property they purchased three years ago on Sugarloaf Key hasn’t seen a tax payment to the County since. And how about that “horse farm” on Lytton’s Way, Big Pine Key, where they actually live. This is not a residential property either and is taxed much lower than residential property. They live in a trailer, illegally connected to city water and sewer on “farmland.”

Furthermore, these lawbreakers also go so far as to list their “home“ address as XXXX Flagler Avenue, Key West (their defunct air conditioning business office) a commercial building for which they pay a business tax of just $20 a year.

Bet your bottom dollar I’ll be there on October 3 to ask candidate Steele how one gets away with this right under his nose? Collusion? We all need to take notes.  ~stfd123@hotmail.com

 

[R.I.P.] So long Taylor Mahone. Fair winds and following seas my love. Whatever touched you here on earth is now gone. You were the love of my life, Angel. Maybe when we get to heaven it will finally work out. RIP sailor. ~George

[“Fans to blow hurricanes out to sea”] Friday’s poster wasn’t that far off. In the late 60’s there was a proposal to have giant fans blow the smog out of Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley to replace the orange smog air with fresh air from the sea.

[Friendship] Friendships may be largely a matter of putting in time. A recent study out of the University of Kansas found that it takes about 50 hours of socializing to go from acquaintance to casual friend, an additional 40 hours to become a “real” friend, and a total of 200 hours to become a close friend.

 

 

 

Prevent strangers from sitting next to you on public transit by using a ziplock baggie, a piece of hose, and some chocolate pudding.

[Child Drummer] Pennsylvania native, Avery Drummer Molek. 7 year old drummer plays “Money For Nothing”. Video
America’s great climate exodus is starting in the Florida Keys. Mass migration begins as coastal homes are bulldozed in the state facing the biggest threat from climate-driven inundation. Shit, no one told me! Link

 

 

Visit Australia, where there’s stuff that bites the heads off crocodiles.

[Killing Time] What did our parents do to kill time before Facebook? I asked that of my 27 brothers and sisters and they have no idea.

U.S. navy confirms UFO videos from Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge are real. Video

[Makeup] Key West make-up artists could do any of these transformations. After all, they transform men to appear as stunningly beautiful women. These photos and hundreds more found on Pinterest. Link

 

 

[Healer] Ever since healer Clara moved into our village all the woman stopped having headaches.

[Key Limes] The obvious answer to bottled or Mexican key limes is to buy a Florida Key Lime Tree (the ones with the thorns) and grow your own key limes. After Irma my yard was destroyed so I went and bought one. The 1st year nothing. The second year we got fruit and from them we planted the seeds which sprouted. This year I’ve got more Key Limes then I know what to do with and about 15 young key lime trees about 1 foot tall. It’ll take about 3 years to produce fruit. Anyone want one?

PS I only use Aunt Sally’s recipe for my pies.

 

How men tell a story.

 

 

How women tell a story.

[“Blackface, should we boycott all of them”]  Of course not. Only those in the political party opposite yours

 

[Conspiracy] It appears as if the blood bank people are attempting to suppress donations by minorities.  I had to show a photo ID before I was allowed to donate today.

 

 

Compostable four-pack beer ring carriers. Link

He loved weed. Then the vomiting began. Months later, he died. I have never heard of this condition from smoking weed. I believe vaping and edibles to be different, perhaps even dangerous. At the end of the article, they mention his mother found edibles. Just pass the joint, please! Video
[Radiation] Cell phone companies have always claimed that their devices are harmless, so why have they been lying about how much radiation they zap you with? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Chicago Tribune both ran studies to get the facts, and both reported that cellphones emit much more radiation than claimed. Most generated more than the FCC limit of 1.6 watts/Kg. The Apple iPhone 7 not only exceeded the FCC legal maximum, it emitted more than double what Apple claimed. I think that is a good example of corporate false assurances that disregard your safety for maximum profit. Cell phones carried or held near you have been proven to harm eyes, reproductive organs and your brain. While we are unlikely to give up our cell phones, it is pretty stupid to stay glued to them. I mostly worry about young children since so many seem to have one in constant use.
[Fluoride] The safety of water fluoridation has been debated for decades. A recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics added new information to this debate by demonstrating that higher fluoride intake during pregnancy was associated with lower IQ scores in boys. Link

 

[WWII Veteran] How about we all send this WWII Veteran, Jim South, a card for his 100th birthday on October 7th. I do not know him but feel like I do. Here is his request story. Link

[GMO Mosquitoes Misrepresented] Very recently we have seen a spate of hysteria published on social media concerning the issue of using genetic modification as a weapon in the war against disease-carrying mosquitos here in the Keys. Those opposed to the idea have engaged in a vicious smear campaign against public officials who are exploring the use of this cutting-edge technique to keep our Keys safe from diseases such as Dengue, Chikungunya, Yellow Fever, Zika, etc. They have spread half-truths, disingenuous statements, and outright lies.

Most recently we’ve seen published a September 12th article from web publisher called “New Atlas” under banner headlines that shrieked: “FAILED GM MOSQUITO CONTROL EXPERIMENT MAY HAVE STRENGTHENED WILD BUGS”

Wow! Pretty scary stuff huh? Maybe if it were true, but it’s not. On September 20, just 8 days after their hysterical report, New Atlas, found it necessary to publish a second article on the topic. The headline for that defacto retraction article read:
“GM MOSQUITO CONTROL STUDY UNDER FIRE BY INDUSTRY EXPERTS.”
Here’s a quote from the defacto retraction article dated 9/20 in New Atlas: “The study itself describes that the Oxitec mosquito shows no greater capacity for disease transmission than do wild ones,” “And a previous published study (which shares some of the same authors as this paper) found that the Oxitec mosquito is not resistant to commonly used insecticides. The paper describes data that shows the Oxitec mosquito to be safe.”

If you’re actually interested facts, not hysteria, I suggest that you read the 9/20 defecto retraction. Link

Women know things that men don’t. It’s a miracle that men survive at all. Video

 

 

NOAA doesn’t like to share the “spaghetti” models of the various computer forecasting predictions of hurricane/storm motion. As of Sunday, they had still ignored the 3 models that had Karen making a sharp left and forecast based on the others that stayed out in the Atlantic. Well look at the model spread Monday evening. “We have low confidence…yada yada” in your forecasts, so do I!

The fats in dairy will protect you, not hurt you. Link

 

Gun control is aiming right and hitting your target. If you can’t handle it, don’t touch it.

[Guns] Are your remarks, insulting many of those who defend the 2nd amendment by labeling them idiots with poor vocabularies and poor reading comprehension ‘civil’? Your post about reading comprehension seems to hide a thinly veiled contempt for people who worry about their second amendment rights being limited by politicians who usually don’t know the first thing about the things they want to ban; other than a rudimentary knowledge, and the idea that by doing so they can gather like-minded political support. Your not-about-guns post also has a tone to it that implies that it is OK for uniformed Federal agents to bang on a citizen’s door and confiscate their rifles and they shouldn’t be concerned; it’s just the one kind of rifle, relax, comply- or go to jail. Your  post was actually about guns. And yes, I interpret the words to mean what I fear the writer is tying to say.

And you are correct again, in the sense that it is a stretch to say, for example, Beto O’Rourke literally articulated a desire to confiscate all guns as he only mentioned the AR15 ( we can only assume this includes the AR 15 platform of common rifles), and the oft maligned AK 47 (and assuming he means the non automatic versions of these rifles that are already strictly limited). He did not say all guns I agree. He stopped just short of listing more.

Poor English reading comprehension? I read (listened) to what Beto said many times to be clear and understood it all too well. I understand that this just-one-kind of gun is really many guns, possibly, yes I’ll say it,  all guns. I do not, as you suggest, misinterpret his remarks, I heard him imply much more than your naive, trusting ear did.

I’ll explain for you before you confirm to yourself that I have fallen into your trap and am making this argument about guns and not your intended subject, reading comprehension, you have already done just that.  Let’s  examine what it is you are implying and how I am responding.

Your statement that some gun rights advocates are at least partially illiterate and can’t understand the concept of ‘specific’ is born of your own misunderstanding of the issue. They say they just want to ban and confiscate the AR 15, for example. What does that really mean? What makes this specific gun so specific and what is it that they are really talking about banning? It is a semiautomatic rifle, one of thousands of models of semiautomatic rifles- defined as, well, semiautomatic. It also, like thousands of other models, has a detachable magazine. Why confiscate just this one model? NY State decided it was the capacity of their magazines; that was the problem. So they banned them (the magazines) and only allow a 7 round magazine. The gun haters seem satisfied for now. Here comes Beto. He said he’ll “take” the rifle from you there anyway . If the magazine was the problem, and that part has already been mitigated there, why take it? And why not take the Mini14, or the Mini30?  The Remington seven or eight round semiautomatic hunting rifle? Because it’s not all about the magazine and an AR 15, specifically. It’s because it’s semiautomatic. Don’t be fooled, when a gun grabber starts out saying they only want to ban a specific firearm, you cannot believe them (and even if that were actually true, I don’t want to lose my trusted rifle).

Beto and his ilk will start out confiscating a whole class of guns. He started to actually say this out loud with- “your AR15, your AK47….” but stopped short of listing them all. Let’s look further into your assertion that what they want to confiscate is clearly spelled out.

Beto also mentioned ammunition in his remarks. He was so gun-grabbing roiled up he let the cat out of the bag that transformed into the gun argument elephant in the room. The slip betrayed his true, unspoken just yet, desire. He said they will confiscate ammunition that is designed to wound and kill. That is essentially all ammunition. That means all firearms. No spelled out ‘specifics’ anymore as you maintain.

Donning my critical thinking/ English language comprehension hat, I suggest that you are correct, the gun control argument is fouled by poor comprehension, but it is yours, not those defenders of the 2nd amendment that read English and know what banning guns with slippery language really means. Subjective bias has nothing to do with it. The words and their implications are universal; banning specific classes of guns, and going further by banning ammunition, means just what it means. And, if they come, I will reluctantly give up the rifle, shamefully, because I am a law abiding citizen. Am I, and my reading abilities really the problem? Is the Constitution of The United States not worth defending by simply not blindly relying on a politician’s forked tongue as you apparently do?

 

 

[DTs] I woke up with this thing in my living room. Should I feed it? I’ve got to stop drinking.