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2014 February

Monday, February 10, 2014

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A pair of Osprey has built a nest on the ground [pavement] next to the Christmas tree on the old Seven Mile Bridge.  That is the best use that bridge has seen for a while.  Take a break from your texting  as you drive by and check it out.

ad-manley-deboer6.27.13

[Hurricane Evacuation] I’ve never left my home during any hurricane because I don’t recall people getting killed from hurricanes too often. As a matter of fact it’s rare. Modern stilt homes like mine are far safer than they used to be. The only reason to leave is fear of death and there hasn’t been a death due to hurricanes since the railroad workers were killed building the Flagler railroad a very long time ago. They certainly weren’t in a stilt house! Flooding is the real danger and that’s no reason to leave.
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tongue lick toilet

[Potty Training] “If it’s yellow let it mellow” I disagree leaving a toilet unflushed with urine in it. It stinks, spreads air borne bacteria making people sick and it stains, requiring more often cleaning which is counter-productive to conservation. Flush that juice, don’t gross out the next person, seek smarter water conservation elsewhere. 

I’m for the County bringing back the free mulch. Damn their excuses!
advert-dennis-ward8.16.13
Does anyone know why George Stephanopoulos is never on This Week with George Stephanopoulos?

relay raceRagnar Relay Race was good to see, but I question how much money that event really brings to the county and local businesses, considering that their fees for facilities (Higgs Beach and other parks used) are waived, many people were self-contained (brought everything) with vans, RVs, and others slept in their vehicles.  One gentleman that I spoke

to told me that he brings everything because to buy it in the Keys is too expensive. My wife and I even saw about 6 relatives of runners camping out near the jumping bridge in Sugarloaf (where was the Sheriff?).

The runners were throwing plastic bottles on the ground and there were no recycling bins provided.  The potties were provided by a company from Dade County not Monroe.

The support vehicles were driven by drivers that have no regards for the law, their focus is watching their athlete at the expense of putting other drivers in danger.  The Sheriff really needs to get this event under control, the State and the County need to get recycling bins out there, and the local Chambers of Commerce need to tell the truth,  this event is not a money-maker for the county nor their members.

Radio-Shack-1.2.14
[Cordless Mouse] Check out the LogiTech website for the best selection and price range of mice in my 30 year use opinion. They have ones that last 18 months on a single battery, ones that work on glass, they don’t need cleaning of the rollers neither.
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craftsman9[Sears enters ‘death-spiral,’ retailer could be gone by 2017] Sears is in decline and in financial trouble. It use to be when I needed a speciality tool I would go to Sears. Not anymore. They just carry the basics or tool sets and you can’t even find plumbing tools or large wrenches any more. They used to be known for their tools. Now Home Depot is the place to go for tools. The clerks in the tool section wouldn’t know a spanner from a torque wrench, not so at HD they’re well informed.

After leaving Sears in disappointment for a common plumbing tool I went to Home Depot and they had about ten feet of wall space just for speciality plumbing tools! When I went to Sears for a tool I used to buy other stuff while I was in the store, not any more. Link

coconuts-ad-11.13
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mouse9

[“A good mouse for scrolling”] Try this one it, works great and is designed for scrolling. Link

Criticism is a fine pastime if done with a bit of common sense and humor. I don’t believe that I was in any way attempting to censor any ones critique of F.T.R. However surely the one making the criticism would not deny me the right to an opinion of his critique. If one said the painting of Mona Lisa was very amateurish I would certainly agree with his right to do so, however I would also certainly criticize his opinion. I believe both examples are quite similar. 
springers-ad12.30.12
If you have a 30-06 that can shoot 20 miles I would be interested in purchasing it. Mine can’t seem to get three or four before that darn gravity takes over. Point being, please learn the particulars before you open your mouth and sound like an idiot. Any logical point you might have had will be summarily dismissed if you make a huge blunder with the facts. If you don’t know certain particulars just Google your question and you’ll get the info you need.

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Today in 1942 Glenn Miller received the first ever gold record for selling a million copies of “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” (Check out Tex Beneke’s hat in this video. That must have been cool in 1942.) 

[Gov Scott a Crook] I hate to bring this up, but here is some info regarding the history of our current Florida Governor for those who wish to cast stones at Mr. Crist.

On March 19, 1997, investigators from the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the company. 8 Days after the initial raid, Scott signed his last SEC report as a hospital executive. Four months later the board of directors pressured Scott to resign as Chairman and CEO. He was paid $9.88 million in a settlement. He also left owning 10 million shares of stock worth over $350 million. It was said that the directors had been warned in the company’s annual public reports to stockholders that incentives Columbia/HCA offered doctors could run afoul of a federal antikickback law that seeks to limit conflicts of interest in Medicare and Medicaid.

In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002, Columbia/HCA pled guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a $600+ million fine in the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history. Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. They also admitted fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. They filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, they gave doctors “loans” never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.

In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the U.S. government $631 million, plus interest, and pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, in addition to $250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims. In all, civil lawsuits cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle, by far the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history.

johnsons-ad-7.25.13
[“Giving heroin a bad name”] Since the USA’s involvement in Afghanistan heroin use in the USA has more than doubled and the price has dropped almost in half in big cities. Just in Vermont alone, heroin use had increased almost 800% since the war. Mission accomplished!

drunk bottle stars

 

60 Minutes showed this bum who they gave an apartment and cleaned him up and then they were surprised when he got evicted for being drunk and disorderly. Did they think his alcoholism would go away because they cleaned him and got him off the streets? They seemed so surprised. They would have had a better chance if they gave him a ride to AA every day.

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advert-accurate-home-insp8.14.13
[Windows 8] I must still be doing something wrong that I am unaware of.  I have yet to encounter a problem with my great new pc that came with the dreaded Windows 8.

spy-vs-spy-sabotage[Attack You Never Heard Of] Last April 16. There was an armed assault on a power station in Metcalf, California. Just after midnight some person or persons slipped into an underground vault near Highway 101 just outside San Jose. He or they cut telephone cables—apparently profes­sionally, in a way that would be hard to repair. And an AK-47 assault rifle knocked out 17 giant transformers that feed electrical power to Silicon Valley. A minute before the police arrived the shoot­ers disappeared into the night. Ten months later no suspect in the case has been identified.

The Metcalf incident is not anything but a deliberate attack by a coordinated, professional group with something deeper and more dangerous on their minds than the joys of vandalism. Who is looking for the shooters, and how hard? On whose list of daily action items is it the top priority?

Those who worry about the grid mostly worry about hackers, and understandably. The grid is under regular hack attack. But the more immediate and larger threat may be physical attacks. 

I was here in Hurricane Georges. You might enjoy perusing this from the Archives. I did. Link
chamber-ad10.17.13
Wouldn’t the pollution from the burning bin on Ramrod Key be far less than the pollution from all those trucks carting our waste up the Keys?

helen10

 

Keys artist Helen Kordon paints something besides hibiscus and palms.

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I can’t tell if a guy is homeless but I can tell if he’s a bum.
nira tocco realtor 9.12
[Burning Man] Put the Rudy Krause transfer station and possible future incinerator on County Property where it belongs and where it can be better monitored by the County. Get it off Ramrod Key from a residential neighborhood. Quit messing around with the future environmental health of the people and diverse plant and animal life found on Ramrod Key, Gulfside. Let history speak for itself and do not make the same mistakes again with the same people. 
febI vote we change the spelling of February to Febuary.
[Potty Training] FWC officers drop  dye packs in live aboard boaters’ toilets to make sure their holding tanks are work­ing properly and the sewage is not going directly into the water.
isaksen-flood-roof 4.23.13 
I do hope someone freed  that mangrove in a jar from  it’s misery.  Plants have feelings too.

head11head112

The down side of this is, this is who you get “head” from.

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[“Dolphin sneeze disease”] Is you friend who is paralyzed a manatee? That was the only species mentioned regarding inter-species infection.
fanci-11-2-13
[Irony] The two classes of people who get the most perks in life are the wealthy and the bums.  Is that ironic or what?

happy bday teddy bear

 

[Happy 80th Birthday to Jim Oettle] Monday, February 10th is Jim’s 80th birthday. Many of you know him because he owned the Old Wooden Bridge Fish Camp for 50 years.  Be sure to wish him a Happy 80th if you see him.

Just to save the County a few cents! (Ed: I think this link is a comparison of burning yard waste and trucking it, but it was too long for my short attention span so I’ll never know.) Link
Flea-Market-ad10.9.13
The problem with the “let it mellow if it’s yellow” toilet concept is that after a while, besides the odor, you get this tan colored crystalline buildup on the bowl that requires a hammer and chisel to remove.
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snake goofy2

[Bites] If you bite it and you die — it’s poisonous.
If it bites you and you die — it’s venomous. 

The problem with mulching yard waste down here is that it would require County workers to do a lot more work.
second-nature-2.6.14
[Two questions regarding bacteria in canals] Is swimming in canals that appear visually clean and have good tidal motion safe? If not, when the sewer system is completed, will that make enough difference to make it safe?
WAPIC1
Deer Ed, thanx fore phosting mi poke nek bhone thang, did yore spel pecker, i meen youre spel chequer broke? Iz that phunny ha ha or phunny quear?
politics-zone2
from the right

Yesterday someone wrote about Charlie Crist: “He (Crist) embraced the Cuban vote and stated he is against the embargo. He came across as well informed and intelligent, but still embraces conservative values even though he changed party affiliation to Democrat. Best of all, he supports legalization of medical marijuana.”

crist-Air-DemsFTR is convinced that Charlie Crist is well informed and intelligent, no doubt about that. But Crist is infamous for telling his audience whatever he thinks his audience wants to hear.  Crist has more flip flops than Kino sandals in Key West.

Of all of Charlie Crist’s flip-flops his current flop on pot could be the biggest. Crist has a long history of opposition to marijuana law reform. As Governor he pushed and signed the harshest anti-marijuana laws in the nation- and he used the issue as a wedge to bludgeon opponents who supported modest drug law reform.

In Crist’s 2000 campaign for Education Commissioner, Charlie Crist ran an ad attacking his opponent for sponsoring legislation to decriminalize marijuana use.  In 2008, as Governor Charlie Crist, opposed weakening Florida’s toughest-in-the-nation marijuana possession laws, including five years in prison for possessing one ounce of marijuana. The Miami Herald reported, “Though he has admitted to smoking marijuana, Gov. Charlie Crist said he still favored Florida’s tough drug laws and doesn’t support legislative plans to review whether to lessen penalties for some crimes such as non-violent drug possession. Charlie Crist also signed the Florida Marijuana Grow House Eradication Act making it a felony to possess more than 25 marijuana plants.  The bill creates new criminal offenses relating to controlled substances.” Crist would pluck pennies off of the eyes of dead man if he thought it would benefit him.

Crist’s flop on his brand new support for ending the Cuban trade embargo is actually quite astonishing.  The new Crist is the exact opposite of Crist  the Republican governor from 2007-11.  Then Crist backed U.S. sanctions against Cuba and signed a state law hiking costs on agencies that book trips to the repressive regime.

“I think the current (Cuban embargo) policy in place is responsible,'” said Crist on June 14, 2010, on a visit to Miami Beach. “I do support the embargo.”

But now Crist is proposing to “stand up” against those Americans of Cuban ancestry who are convinced that we should not be doing business with the Brothers Castro who are dictators of a communist state who rule with an iron fist.

In 2010 Republican Governor Crist spoke at the annual Christian Family Coalition breakfast in Miami, he said: “I am pro-life, I am pro-gun, I am pro-family, and I am anti-tax.” Crist also told the audience that he was a supporter of Roe v Wade.  Crist added: “I am pro-life and I believe instead of change laws, change hearts. It’s what I said when I ran for governor, and I still believe that, I am not going to change my stripes.” But the new Crist is all for abortion on demand.

Crist now embraces Democare, but as a Republican Senate candidate a couple of years ago he railed against it.  Senate candidate Crist’s wooed voters by claiming that he “strongly opposed” the ACA/Obamacare/Democare legislation which was then working its way through the Democrat controlled Congress.  Republican Senate candidate Crist  assured he that he was convinced that  government run health care system is not the answer to our nation’s health care needs but instead it is the typical answer of liberals and Democrats in Congress. He said “The American people need a health care system that provides choice and access to quality health care at affordable costs. These health care opportunities are not found in the legislation championed by President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.”  Crist strongly opposed Democare as an Independent and as a Republican. The new Crist has embraced Obama and Democare, he is giving both big wet kisses. In a MSNBC interview he gushed: “I think it’s (Obamacare) the right thing to do, and I feel that in my heart.” All of that notwithstanding the nearly universal forecast that Florida health care premiums will spike in 2014.

Crist may be many things, including a chameleon, but he is not a conservative. Crist also is not a Democrat, nor is he an independent.  Since he quit the governor’s office he has been a Republican, an Independent, and now a Democrat. Crist is an opportunist who has fed at the public trough for far too many years. He and Obama share the lack of character that permits them to say anything in order to woo voters. Neither is to be trusted. Each is a political opportunist that has only contempt for the voters.

It is sad to think that for some in the CT community the issue of the legalization of pot is more important than jobs, our national debt, our failing economy, terrorism, abortion, voting rights, immigration reform, and our rapidly declining stature in the world.  Sad.

flatline heart monitor

Part 2)  We’ve heard nearly nothing about the January Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report. That not surprising in that it is yet another dismal indicator that our economy is on the skids. In December we created only about 74k jobs, last month we only created about 113k new jobs. That is much lower than was forecast and only about 25% of the number of jobs created in January 2013. At that rate it will take more than 20 years to return to employment rate we had when the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007. We’re sliding backwards under Democrat governance, it’s time to get rational. Link

Please send me your comments at 1776ftr@gmail.com