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2014 January

Thursday, January 3, 2014

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rumor-mill

 

[Rumor Mill] I heard that US1 Radio and 92.7 were purchased by the same person? Is this true?

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Again three Mosquito Control District Commissioners are spending your tax dollars, and the spending of your money was added at the last minute on the meeting agenda of December 20th.  The agenda had already been voted on and passed.  This added item was also okayed by the MCD attorney.  The public was unaware this item was going to be added or spoken to until after the item was brought up.  Does that sound as if the Commissioners thought this idea of being generous with your tax money might be a problem?  

Mosquito Control Staff has about 12 paid holidays a year.  Now your tax dollars are going to be giving them another full day of pay and no work.  Three of the Commissioners voted to pay and give the staff off ½ day at Christmas Eve and ½ day off on New Year’s Eve.  That adds up to almost $25,000.00 plus of public hard earned money. The private sector and most businesses I know are open on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve from 9-5, why are not government offices?  It is also my understanding the County is now doing the same. Been told the staff is not working anyway, whose fault is that? Where does it stop, the spending of our money for nothing in return other than goodwill to the members who get the paid time off?

I have got a couple of suggestions to allow public servants to have ½ day off on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and not dip into the pockets of the public.  Take ½ day of your vacation time off at this time if you so choose; you are still getting paid and the time off.  Another suggestion would be to take one of the paid 12 holidays and exchange it for the ½ day off at Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.  I know that would be less distasteful for the tax payers that I have spoken to about this matter if something of this nature could be looked at and adopted.

I would like to request the Commissioners of the Mosquito Control, and the BOCC Commissioners to give some consideration to these ideas and adopt one of them.  I hope other taxpayers are just as upset as are members of the public sector that I have spoken to about this.

Hope you contact each of your MDC and the BOCC members and discuss this with them to let them know how you feel about spending of your tax dollars on this issue.

nessie2
[21 Cuban migrants, including kids, found at Marathon beach]  Homeland Security where are you? This is not a rare event. It happened in the afternoon, arriving at 4 pm. If the bad guys ever wanted to invade the Keys or anywhere in Florida I don’t think they would be stopped or even seen by law enforcement. What is the Cudjoe blimp, Fat Albert, watching? That is a true waste of money. Link 

hookah worm

 

[Attention Kids: Smoking Pot Actually Does Make You Stupid After All] Pass that bong, I just desperately want to fit in. Link

[Best blogging sites for free] Site evaluates the best free blogging sites online, some blog sites even tracks your visitors and popularity over time etc. Link
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A brawling, hot-dog chucking New Jersey tourist was arrested Saturday after she punched an officer in the neck and threatened to kill him during an obscenity-laced tirade on Duval Street.  It is official, the lovely Jersey women are back!

glad bag2[Glad] All of the posts regarding our trash pick up reminds me of a somewhat related song we used to sing, some of the lyrics:

Send me to glory in a Glad Bag
Don’t waste no fancy coffin on my bones
Just put me on the curb next Thursday morning
Let the Sanitation Department carry me home.

Glad you dumped the viviparous political postings. I am fully capable of refusing to read past the political line you have. Great job.

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drunk fish

 

Recreational Grouper Seasons. 68B-14.003

1) In all state waters of the Gulf of Mexico, except in all waters of Monroe County, the closed season for the recreational harvest and possession of gag grouper, red grouper, black grouper, yellowfin grouper, yellowmouth grouper, rock hind, red hind or scamp shall be from February 1 through March 31, each year.

(2) In all state waters of the Atlantic Ocean, including all waters of Monroe County, the closed season for the recreational harvest and possession of gag grouper, black grouper, red grouper, yellowfin grouper, yellowmouth grouper, rock hind, red hind, scamp, coney, graysby, and tiger grouper shall be from January 1 through April 30 each year.

[Hubble Pointed at Nothing] Try to wrap your mind around this. Our planet, even our galaxy, is like a tiny speck of sand on an immense ocean beach.

In 1996 astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at what appeared to be absolutely nothing and left it there for 10 days; and then, in 2004, they did it again for 11 days. This time they pointed the Hubble toward another seemingly black, empty “nothing” area. A narrator describes what Hubble revealed in those areas of nothingness. They made the images Hubble recorded into a 3-D presentation. Remember, the speed of light is 186,000 miles a second. When light travels at that speed for an entire year, that is equal to one light year. The meaning of what Hubble found is beyond comprehension. Video

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[Health Care System] In 1942, a hospital room was $7.00 per day, $97.29 in inflation adjusted 2011 dollars. In 1980, $349 (in 2011 dollars). In 2011 the average was $1,393.

Between 1942 and 1980, the annual increase for a daily hospital room was $6.70 per year for 38 years. Between 1980 and 2011 it was a increase of $33.60 a year for 31 years, or 5 times as much.

trout3trout2[Trout Tout] While fishing on the Funyet we caught two of the largest trout that I have caught in the Keys. Today we were hiding from the wind in Spanish Channel. The small one was about 20″ and the larger was 23″. The folks at Big Pine Restaurant did a spectacular job on our cook your catch. That whole platter of fish was from those two trout. 

[Marathon City Manager] Hernstadt makes $145,000, plus $33,000 in health benefits, per year. That adds up to $178,000 per year.

He started in January of 2010 at $110,000 but in four short years he is up to $178,000 in salary and benefits (“Hernstadt makes $145,000, plus $33,000 in health benefits, per year”); meaning he’s seen an average salary increase of $17,000 per year (that’s equates to more than a 10% salary increase each year).

And the implication in this article is that he is using the Marco Island job-prospect as a bargaining tool for yet another salary and benefits increase.

I don’t think Marathon (with a population of 8,400) can continue to afford to employ a City Manager who is making almost as much as the County Manager (who oversees a population of 73,500). Link

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My 2014 New Year’s Resolution is to find all the old New Years Resolutions I wrote down someplace.

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Like a job as an air traffic controller? These images were snapped at 10.10am Australian local time (Friday 2nd) on a live radar site, showing the USA and Australia. The worlds most stressful Job – An Air traffic control in the USA

[Competition is good] On mobile devices, the majority web surfing is on iOS, with the many iPhones and iPads out there (that are easy to use). If the decline of desktops continues, this bodes poorly for the Microsoft world. They stood still for too long, and Apple and Android have flown by in the fast lane. See graph in Link
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chic2

 

Thursday is Sandwich Day at Springer’s Bar & Grill. Today’s special is a Chicken Parmesan sandwich with one side dish for $9.95. A sandwich this good should be illegal.

[Fun Pot Legal in Colorado] Activists hope the experiment in Colorado will prove to be a better alternative to the costly American-led drug war, pro­duce the kind of revenue that state officials hope and save the government costs in lock­ing up drug offenders. 
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[“Girdles”] Hate them all you wish, but personally, I would like to strangle the clown that invented pantyhose.

bulb cfc green

 

[“Lightbulb ‘scam’”] The removal of incandescent lightbulbs is one of the great energy savings moves to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels which means reduced foreign oil imports and less carbon emissions. LEDs use 70 – 80% less energy. Those incandescent lightbulbs are very inefficient – the vast majority of the energy they consume becomes heat, not light). Coincidently, this article yesterday hightlighted the benefit. Link

Sorry to bust your conspiracy theory, but as with a lot of topics, people who don’t have the facts seem inclined to assume that it’s a conspiracy. I was hoping 2014 would be better … sigh…

[Sewers] These lift stations should have 2 large grinder pumps each and the pumps rotate duty cycles until one fails then the other works all the time until the other is fixed. It should only take a couple of minutes to pump a lift station with the right pump.

spanx2

 

[“Girdles”] The current day equivalent is “Spanx” compression garments.

I’m looking to rent a fishing boat from March 22-28 near Sugarloaf Key.

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A big thank you to Erin at the little tiki bar who made our New Year’s Eve a very enjoyable night. She was very friendly and super good at bringing our adult beverages(she is also a very attractive young lady).

os1.1.14

 

[“What operating system are you using”] The chart posted yesterday on operating systems doesn’t have any supporting information what it represents. If is was a result of a poll, it’s not very accurate. Link

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jazzy2

Some old fogy writes here every now and then saying that people smoke pot to be “hip or cool”. He evidently doesn’t know what it’s like to get high. If he can ride his Hoveround Chair to my house I’ll show him, and that’ll surely change his tune. Happy New Year! 

[Happy Trails] The first thing you notice when you ride the new bike trail is all the junk the locals have dumped back there over the years.
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[Citizen Of The Day Says] Sunshine is what she likes most about Key West.

 

 

pregnant mother earth

 

[A New Earth] Earth 2? Scientists discover clouds on an Earth -sized world only 40 light years away. Link 

[Police officer advice] How to respond if someone holds a gun to your head. Link

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Look at this baby-faced Daryl Hall!  Now that is a rock star worthy of a fan club.  I met him back in the 80s Tall men are so cool.  Aren’t they? Video

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Coconuts has been putting out Christmas & Thanksgiving feeds for over 30 years. Where does the time go my friends. Without u there is no us. Thank you.  ~The ‘NUT” 
[Million American Jobs Project] By taking a fraction of our spending and buying US-made goods, we’ll create a economic tidal wave. Video 
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[Devices Searches Legal] No reason or suspicion required and it seems they also can copy the device’s contents for later use. Sad. Link
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reagan bangs head

 

Ronald Reagan’s humor. If these don’t make you laugh you need help! Video

Ed, Shame on you for canceling national politics. The FTRG very few rebuttals because he writes the truth. 
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[Software Downunder] Australians frequently complain about the price of imported software, and rightfully so. From operating systems to applications, the price of software is typically 50% or so higher than it is in the United States.

In fact, the price of Adobe Creative Suite (of which Photoshop is one of the most famous elements) is so expensive in Australia ($4,334 as of mid-2013), that it’s actually cheaper to book a round trip flight to the U.S. and purchase a copy while visiting for $2,599. Based on the average cost of flights over the last year, you’d save around $600 pulling the stunt.

While it would be easy to blame import tariffs or other government intrusions for the absurdly high prices, the blame rests almost entirely on the software publishers. The Australian government has conducted multiple inquiries into why local prices are so high, going as far as summoning representatives from Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe to justify why they gouge Australian purchasers so severely.

happy new year black hHappy New Year to Glenn Reber living in the avenues on Big Pine Key. Hope 2014 is good to you if you are still in the Keys.
[Not a fan] To paraphrase Anderson Cooper. “FTR guy is like the elderly relative who doesn’t get out of bed much, and blurts out nonsensical sentences.” As for the “Well written and well researched”, it is neither. At times FTR guy comes across like an angry 5th grader who’s not getting his way. As for research, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, you can find anything on the internet that will pander to your beliefs.
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[Kill it if it’s got teeth] Better kill all the sharks.  They might jump up and eat a baby or someone’s yap dog. 

CatPump

 

[Captain Doom and Gloom] DEF: Respect n, Is thanking the tree that gave you the Kleenex and TP!
DEF: Raghead n, A person unwanted by his peers who despises himself to the point of self-inhalation through blind religious faults and stupidly.
DEF: Reality n, That which incurs a state of being when the red stuff squirts from your wound and will not stop.
DEF: Grinder Pump n, An attempt to control waste products and convey them to other locations to contaminate the new area as in the old area.
DEF: Politics: Methods to make money and control fools!  ALSO SEE: Political GREED 101, Grinder Pimp.

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from the right

global-warming-antarctic-ironyFinally Team Obama appears to be on the way to moderating some of the front end problems of the ACA, aka Democare, website. The absence of news about the back end, the end that actually interfaces with the various insurance companies and pays the bills to health care providers is deafening. We hear nothing, Team Obama does not brag about it. That portends massive screw ups being hidden from us.  We still have not real idea of how many persons are actually now covered by Democare.  If the number was good, they would be bragging about it.

We know now that Democare is certain to be a huge burden to the middle class. We know now that it will cost most of us one hell of a lot more money to buy Democare insurance than we are paying now.

The New York Times, the great liberal “Gray Lady”, reported: “The cost of premiums for people who just miss qualifying for subsidies rises rapidly for people in their 50s and 60s. In some places, prices can quickly approach 20 percent of a person’s income. Experts consider health insurance unaffordable once it exceeds 10 percent of annual income. By that measure, a 50-year-old making $50,000 a year, or just above the qualifying limit for assistance, would find the cheapest available plan to be unaffordable in more than 170 counties around the country, ranging from Anchorage to Jackson, Miss.”

And that is only the tip of the iceberg.  Businesses will cut back hours, lay off workers, and end company supplied healthcare.  That is as certain as tomorrow. The middle class will have less disposable income, that means they will buy less stuff. Which means businesses suffer, which means fewer jobs, etc. etc. etc.

msnbc2Part 2) Deer Friends, the attacks seen here directed against Fox are never backed up with evidence. But, very recently we have seen two egregious assaults against Republican personalities by MSNBC “stars”

A few weeks ago Martin Bashire, MSNBC “star” called Sarah Palin a “world class idiot” and stated that someone should defecate in her mouth.

Just the other day, MSNBC “star” Melissa Harris-Perry, mocked Mitt Romney’s adopted black grandson. Just for the record Harris-Perry is black.  Deer Friends, her remarks were liberal racism. During the same show, panelist Judy Gold commented on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, expressing her dismay that the Republican was the father of two daughters, Catherine and Caroline.” “Men like this … they have daughters. That disturbs me,”

NBC’s New Year’s Eve coverage has been slammed as ‘disgusting’ after one guest mocked Pearl Harbor survivors for being so old that they could only chew soft spaghetti-o’s…that comment elicited gales of laughter from the other three panelists.

Deer Friends, I really don’t think that the remarks were intentionaly racist or anti elderly, but simply are a product of the liberal mindset that convinces them that they are superior to others. They see themselves as being the elite and that anyone who holds different views than theirs are simply inferior beings.  Hence to the liberals, mocking and attacking is as natural as flatulence.

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