Stone Crab Season opens today! FANCI SEAFOOD will have Fresh Stone Crab Claws later in the day. Call 305-745-3887 ahead to find out their availability! We’re open at 8 am Wednesday morning and we will have them for sure.

[Bad Vibes] A Little Torch resident posed this good question yesterday about grinder pumps on canal lots. Everyone knows that sound carries better in water than air. When snorkeling, you can hear an upcoming coral head by the sound of the tiny snapping shrimp. So individual grinder pumps sit in a plastic barrel 7 feet in the ground (underwater). When all those pumps run and grind, the vibrations will travel to the canal. What effect will that have on the marine life? Where’s the environmental assessment on this new waterfront development plan?

[Conspiracy] I have worked in the government on and off for 38 years. During that time I became quite familiar with requisitions, bidding, awarding contracts etc. It is a time consuming process with bean-counters and pencil-necked bureaucrats every step of the way. The simplest request takes months not days or hours. In less than 8 hours of the shutdown, miraculously, professionally printed, 3X4 foot signs appeared all over the country in the tens of thousands saying: this (park, facility, etc. with custom logos and current dates) closed due to government shutdown.

There has not been a government shutdown in 17 years. These signs were designed, specifications were determined, signs were then requisitioned, bids were posted and vetted, government contracts were awarded. The materials were then ordered and the signs manufactured then distributed through U.S. mails or freight companies.

This shutdown was orchestrated, and planned well in advance, at least 6-8 months ago. Millions of tax dollars were appropriated and spent in this process. There is a paper trail a mile long leading directly to the White House.

[“Sex offender”] Well, maybe not a sex offender, but how about a child abuser? My friend was constantly fighting with his 13 year old a**hole of a daughter and took away her phone. So she went to her mother’s phone and called Child Services to report her father for child abuse. A gang of police showed up and handcuffed him and took him to jail. The daughter recanted when she got her phone back, but the father still had to go to court, pay a lawyer and get a bad reputation and be perpetually embarrassed. The daughter grew up to be a stripper in Key West and is still an a**hole.

[Pennywise-Pound Foolish] It is unconscionable for our county commissioners to even consider grinder pumps, knowing that mass failures will occur during extended power outages. They must know that this will send raw sewage into homes and streets. Has anyone thought of the potential costs? Or the damage to the environment? Is the county going to house all of these homeowners in hotels after a hurricane? This must be a joke, right?

[The End is Near] It is quite simple really, all this planet has to do is have one maintenance department to supply electricity, drinking water, efficient waste processing, maintain roadways, shipping facilities, railroads, hospitals, and expand and protect the farms and forests. To do this we need humans that understand we are on a rock drifting around a star that has given us limitless amounts of energy and created the life forms we have on this earth. There is absolutely no reason to risk our existence with things that can and probably will end our existence like unbreathable air, radiation emitting apparatuses, and dangerous insect and animal populations detrimental to humanity.

Wars, disease, greed, religions, hate, class distinctions, and false egos are destroying this planet. It is easy to say things like this, but to get humanity to accept the responsibility and to come to the realization that we might not be here much longer unless we change our ways, is a tough act. The majority just do not give a damn.

[Conspiracy Man] According to some reliable sources, it has been brought to my attention that NASA will make “An earth shaking announcement” on 11/13/13. Rumors have been circulating about the possible connection of this announcement and the rapidly approaching Comet ISON. Coincidentally on Nov. 13th & 14th 2013 our government will be conducting a drill, testing a power grid shutdown, in these United States. According to an independent researcher, he has discovered some unusual and very interesting data concerning Comet ISON. It seems to have a jet like propulsion in front of the massive Comet, and some unusual structures on it and or alongside of it. Also adding that the entry, and trajectory of this Comet is highly unusual and unlike any other Comet observed in the past.

According to Prof. James M. McCanney, M.S. Physics, “Comet ISON left a COMA like tail around Mars as it left Mars orbit some week and a half ago”. Prof. McCanney also states that he believes the government shutdown is linked to NASA’s discovery. He finds it very peculiar that all of NASA’s websites and data servers are completely shutdown, preventing other Astronomers and scientists from using their databases, when NASA itself was just handed a fat check months before Oct 1st.

Today in 1951, “I Love Lucy,” starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, premiered on  CBS. 

[The Bridge] Just waiting for the BOCC to slip some more of our tax money to the Pigeon Key bridge project like the $2.7 million they just did.  What was that for anyway?  Details please.  Some of us are still watching.

Use the force!

[“Getting on the sex offender registry for bad accusations”] Only if one pleads, or is found guilty by a group of their peers. “In most countries, every woman and man would be on that list for underage molestation.” No they won’t be, because most of the world’s people aren’t mentally sick like you are envisioning everyone.

“Ever been to the orient, middle east, Africa or S America, there are no laws there.” Yes there are, protecting the health, mentality, future and well being of offspring is every parents’ instinctive reaction. Since there are parents everywhere, the law is everywhere, even in primitive societies with no formal government or adequate laws, even in regressive Islamic societies.

“If that (laws) are they they (are there) are not enforced.” Maybe you should find yourself one, because your last sentence contained a Freudian slip.

[Jimi Hendrix] 45th Anniversary of “Electric Ladyland”. This program contains some rather insightful interviews of The Experience. Video

The guy is right about Melody Key, aka Money Key. It is about a mile off Summerland Key. I don’t know if it’s on the charts, but it is definitely there and once owned by the rock dude from 311. I was on the island with Joel Rosenblatt who was the engineer who guided me through doing the drawings for all the renovations. It’s a fantastic house on a fantastic island property. The caretaker at the time told me the owner would get 6 to 8 thousand a week from superstars, whose names I’ve since forgotten, who would stay there and run around naked.

Flu shots will be available to eligible seniors in the Big Pine Key Senior Center (behind the Big Pine fire station) from 10 am to noon on Thursday, Oct. 17. Flu shots will be administered to those who are 65 or older and have a Medicare card. Events

Best UFO sightings for the month of September 2013. Video

We are always hearing about Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about Welfare running out of money?

What is interesting, the first group worked for their money, the second didn’t! SSC is a free loan to the Government without interest which they can pay back or not as they see fit. Welfare is a charity of errors to bribe the useless eaters, so they do not revolt and burn down the SSC buildings. 

The numbers game is the problem. You cannot have an independent entity deciding on rates or amount of currency in circulation without a commensurate mechanism that ensures the system does not go into default. If the printing of money to infuse economic life is done covertly, why should shareholders, AKA US citizen be held hostage to those capricious and arbitrary decisions. 

Tell how long until sunset is without a watch.

[For Rent] Little Torch Key. Furnished efficiency for a working person. Utilities included. No perfume product use. $650 a month. $400 security deposit. Sorry no dogs. 305-872-4042 Classified Ads > Houses For Rent

Meals on wheels?

[Spies Like Us] The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal email and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans. Link

I went into the art studio in Marathon which opened this weekend to check it out. Wow, is it great. It’s all new, they have classes, pottery, glass, and they’ll have workshops. Surprisingly the prices are relatively low — $20ish to paint a vase and fire it up (don’t know the correct lingo).  I’ll going to ask my dogs to get a new doggie bowl with their paw prints on it for Christmas for Mom. 

Jehovah’ Witnesses are trying a new spin. 

How can a few extremists hijack the American government, shut it down and threaten the world with recession? Either our political system is broken or there aren’t enough other politicians with a spine who’ll stand up to those nuts.

I think we are all agreed here on the CT, both conservatives and liberals all and it is unanimous that we demand all members of the House of Representatives and Congress be terminated, effective by the end of this day Tuesday, October 15, 2013 and that each state Governor assume the responsibilities of the laws of this land until new branches of government are formed.

Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs sharply criticized the Obama administration for what he called an “excruciatingly embarrassing” rollout of Obamacare, and said officials needed to be fired over it. Video

America held hostage, the crisis continues.

This is the second Judge to have read the Obama Care document and made comments. More highlights of Nancy ‘s “pass it and then find out what’s in the bill”. Show this to everyone nearing the ripe old age of 76. These are just a few of the things that we Seniors are going to have to deal with starting in 2014.  Link

I am hardly what anyone would call a gun nut.  I’m in my mid-60’s and have not only never fired a gun, but have never even held one until a few months ago. But some things have changed in our country and I decided that prudence dictated that the time had come to change all that. Let me elaborate.

I expect that many of you have heard the story of the glitch last weekend regarding  EBT (food stamp) cards.  It appears that in about seventeen states the computer system went down.  In some states, limits on spending were absent and people cleaned out the stores, buying not only food, but flat screen TV’s and other electronics.  In other places, no one was allowed to purchase anything with the cards and riots were threatened.  Lawlessness was the spirit of the moment.

Several months ago, in Michigan, about a thousand government housing subsidy vouchers were to be given out, but about 5,000 people showed up to claim them.  When the vouchers were all handed out, the people who were not among those receiving them, beat up the staff people and burned down the building.

Our government spending and the dependency it creates are out of control.  The entitlement mentality has metastasized to the point where it cannot be reined back in without the threat of violence.

Sadly, it doesn’t matter which party is in power, the ultimate outcome will be the same.  If the Democrats remain in power, spending will keep growing to the point where it is unsustainable.  Money will eventually run out and the programs will end as a result.  Reaction among those who have become addicted will likely be violent.  On the other hand, if the Republicans regain power and attempt to reel in spending by cutting benefits given out by these programs, individuals for whom the checks have stopped coming will react in a similar fashion.

I have worked very hard for what I have.  I have no intention of allowing someone who, when government largesse has become a thing of the past, comes to take it from me, to be able to do so without a fight.  They endeavor such actions at their own peril.

[Affordable Health Care Act] Act is the right word!

How’s that whole lets-vote-in-the-Tea Party-members-to-Congress working out for you? 74% disapproval rate. We got what we voted for. Time to play “Spin the poll numbers” from the Right.