[Nepotism] Residents of unincorporated Monroe county I think its time to form a grass roots association and stop this board of county commissioners. Letting county manager Gatasi negotiate a contract with a friend of his that owns Powell Marina is crazy unless he gets a deal like he did on his [stolen] phones from the county. He has been trying to get the county to buy Powell Marina since he started. I voted for the 1 cent sales tax with the understanding it was to do the sewers not to go back in the real estate business. Murphy pushed this for her Key Largo friends. if Nugent wants to buy the 7 Mile Bridge for city of Marathon then the City should buy the bridge. I also heard he wants to lease the swimming hole in Big Pine and spend lots of money to fix the area. Maybe it will fall through the cracks like Shark Key and them getting deeply discounted sewers. I also heard they are thinking of raising taxes on us too. The Cities didn’t want to be with the rest of the county so why should we buy for them?

Just try to get a picnic table at the end of the 7 Mile Bridge on the weekend or go to Annes Beach — no residents are at either one. Also how are people allowed to camp on the bridges when you can’t park and sleep on the right of way. We have to check on the legal use on the 1 cent tax or were we all misled just to get our vote. ~acg1086@aol.com

[Pitcairn Island] The great-great-great-grandson of Fletcher Christian has died on Pitcairn Island where the population is now 51.

Pitcairn, settled by the mutineers and their Tahitian consorts in 1790, is a rocky speck of about two square miles. Most of its inhabitants are descended from the mutineers and the Tahitian women they brought with them.

In December 1787, His Majesty’s Armed Vessel Bounty left England for Tahiti to collect breadfruit with which to feed slaves on Britain’s Caribbean plantations. On April 28, 1789, less than a month into the return voyage, the master’s mate, Fletcher Christian, weary of what he described as the bullying of the captain, William Bligh, led crewmen in seizing control of the ship.

Captain Bligh and 18 sympathizers were cast adrift; most, Bligh included, eventually made their way to England. Christian and his men sailed the Bounty to Tubuai, in the Austral Islands, and then back to Tahiti, where some mutineers chose to remain.

Knowing that the British admiralty would scour the seas for him — and that a court-martial and a hanging would follow — Christian set sail again with eight of his men, plus a small group of Tahitian men and women. They landed at Pitcairn, then uninhabited, in January 1790. There, to avoid detection, they burned and scuttled the Bounty.

There are no automobiles on Pitcairn, and the island’s rocks and cliffs bear names redolent of long-ago tragedies: “Where Dan Fall,” “Where Minnie Off,” “Oh Dear.”

Book: PITCAIRN’s ISLAND unfolds a tale of drunkeness, betrayal, murder, and vengeance as it chronicles the fate of Christian, the mutineers, and a handful of Tahitians, who together take refuge on the loneliest island in the Pacific. Link

[“Yellow corn more nutritious”] I couldn’t even guess the difference in nutritional value, but I do know that to pick the tastiest corn you look for the lighter yellow kernels that are almost full and haven’t started to harden.  Once they develop complete fullness, bright yellow color, and start to dent in the middle it’s overripe and hardening into grain, and has lost most of it’s tenderness and sweetness.  Yes, I grew up in Iowa, picking my own.

Al Jazeera America news is now on Comcast channel 107.  Better have your house swept first, and then keep the shades down while watching, if you dare. NSA is watching you watching.

Hey potato recipe guy, we made it last night. The potatoes were a hit and came out just like the picture. Thank you very much.  You may have started a trend – go viral on YouTube with this one. Menu > Recipes > Crispy Baked Potato

[Lionfish] There is much talk about the Lionfish and how painful the sting can be.  I have a diver friend who was hit by a Lionfish two years ago (his fault by careless handling) and was very uncomfortable for about two days with pain he described as “ranging” to “mild” to “severe” and then slowly lessening over a couple of days.  As a diver growing up in So. California, we had to be aware of the ‘Sculpin’ sometimes called a Firefish.  

Unlike the Lionfish the Sculpin lurks at the bottom in rocky areas and is normally very well camouflaged.  They are frequently caught by fishermen and, like the Lionfish are quite good to eat.  I got hit by a Sculpin while diving San Clemente Island.  The pain was immediate and intense, much like a wasp sting.  By the time I got back to the boat my hand was on fire with pain radiating up my arm.  Within an hour my hand was swollen and the pain was excruciating.  Hours from the nearest medical help on Santa Catalina Island I just had to tough it out.  By the time I got to the small hospital on Catalina I was feverish, nauseated and the pain was a very intense burning sensation with the swelling now well above my wrist.  Due to the length of time since the sting, the hot water bath wasn’t effective as the venom had already spread through the tissues.  I was given a shot for pain that barely took the edge off.  Over the next 48 hours the pain subsided to a tolerable level helped by some killer pills.  It took nearly a week for the swelling and residual discomfort to fully go down even with three daily soaks in warm water and Epsom Salt but I still had trouble with my hand for nearly a month.  Aching, tenderness at the wound site and stiffness.

I have read that the Lionfish is the least toxic of that family of venomous fish, but I have no desire to repeat the experiment.  So, to the Lionfish hunters, good hunting and be careful.  I’ll gladly help you eat your cleaned catch and share a fresh speared Hogfish grilled on the barbie with you.

Americans against fracking.  Link

I got caught between a car with a bumper sticker that read, “Slow down, this ain’t the Mainland”  and another car with a sticker that said something about, “Speed it up, some of us live here and have to get to work”.  

What to do, what to do?

[“KW Road Non-construction”] I have found the missing work crews, they are on a bridge in mathews, Va

[Pencil Carving]  For more than 25 years Dalton Ghetti has been carving pencil lead into miniature sculptures, working mostly with a razor blade. He says he can only do it for about an hour at a time. Link

[Sewers] A meeting to provide wastewater collection system information to residents of Lower Matecumbe Key will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Boy Scout Sea Base, 73800 Overseas Highway.  Representatives from sewer contractors will be there to answer questions.Residents will have an opportunity to review their proposed location for connection to the system and request modifications. The meeting will not be televised. For more information, contact Sandy Skeel at sandy.skeel@islamorada. fl.us or at 305-664-6455.

Dredging. Want more of this?

[Free Dog Walker in Eden Pines] I don’t have my dog for another month or so, and would like to walk someone’s medium to large dog a few times a week evenings and or maybe mornings. I used to train dogs in Los Angeles. E mail me and I’ll give you my number and we can chat. flakeysgurl@aol.com

[Crab Cakes] The person posting the potato recipe has a great idea. We all have political views of our own, we all love to hear about local happenings we missed. I will go as far to speak for all of the committed readers: we love BigPineKey.com. If not, people wouldn’t spend their time reading it or voicing their opinions. I would love it if you could add a Recipe corner? (Ed: We do, it’s at Menu > Recipes) Just a thought, saying that, my wife is making Crab Cakes for dinner as I opine. Being from the mid-Atlantic states, I’m a Blue crab eating fool, or used to be, now I savor stone crab season. Here is her recipe. She calls it a Cuban style Crab Cake made with Backfin lump blue crab. We have never been able to use stone crab, because once the butter is melted its all over.

1lb Phillips Backfin lump
1 large egg
1/3 cup mayo
1 heaping teaspoon cumin
4-5 dashes of your best hot sauce (we use sriacha)
Dash of salt
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
Mix all ingredients gently, you do not want to break up the lump that much, form into patties (makes four). Fry in a pan with half stick of butter 2-3 minutes each side.
Last, but not least, enjoy!

Student received 0% on an exam.  I would have given him 100% for his wit.

In which battle did Napoleon die? His last battle./Where was the Declaration of Independence signed? At the bottom of the page. /River Ravi flows in which state? Liquid /What is the main reason for divorce? Marriage./What is the main reason for failure? Exams./What can you never eat for breakfast? Lunch & dinner. /What looks like half an apple? The other half. /If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become? It will simply become wet. /How can a man go eight days without sleeping ? No problem, he sleeps at night. /How can you lift an elephant with one hand? You will never find an elephant that has only one hand. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in other hand, what would you have ? /Very large hands. /If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it? No time at all, the wall is already built. /How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it? Any way you want, concrete floors are very hard to crack.

Condom advertising done right.

[Hurricane Tanisha] It appears our African-American friends have found yet something else to be pissed about. A black congresswoman (this would be Sheila Jackson Lee, of Houston ), reportedly complained that the names of hurricanes are all Caucasian sounding names. She would prefer some names that reflect African-American culture such as Chamiqua, Tanisha, Woeisha, Shaquille, and Jamal.

She would also like the weather reports to be broadcast in ‘language’ that street people can understand because one of the problems that happened in New Orleans was, that black people couldn’t understand the seriousness of the situation, due to the racially biased language of the weather report.

I guess if the weather person says that the winds are going to blow at 140+ MPH, that’s too hard to understand. I can hear it now: A weatherman in New Orleans says, “Wazzup, mutha-fukkas! Hehr-i-cane Chamiqua be headin’ fo’ yo ass like Leroy on a rocket! Bitch be a category fo’! So, turn off dem chitlins, grab yo’ chirren, leave yo crib, and head fo’ de nearest FEMA office fo yo free shit.

Save those milk jugs Halloween is right around the corner! What you’ll need:Clean plastic gallon milk jugs/Black permanent marker/Craft knife/String of 50 clear low-wattage holiday lights./Draw silly eyes, nose and mouths on the jugs. Leave the caps on while you do this, so the jugs don’t dent. Use the craft knife to cut a half-dollar-size hole in the back of each jug. Arrange the “ghosts” near each other and string the lights between them, stuffing several bulbs into each of the jugs. 

A controlled burn is like a controlled fart. It can turn to crap in a matter of seconds. 

Well it is Sunday, and I’ve got to go to church and pay my tribute to that weirdo in the dress. Seems I got to pay for everything me and my family do anymore in the Keys. They got us by the short hairs for sure!

Racial census map.

Beer … it does a body good.

[“Real News can be found on RT”] I found RT on my ROKU online thingy connected to my TV. Not only is the news presented in depth, the RT presenters make FOX’s aging crew look like the crusty old farts they’re preaching to.

RT’s Abby Martin swinging that sledge hammer — hubba hubba! 

[Obamacare Primer] Emergency Care. You go to a hospital emergency room with a sudden and serious condition, such as the symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. The emergency visit is already covered under most plans. But under the reform law, emergency room visits do not require pre-authorization, and you cannot be charged extra for an out-­of-network visit.

[Sleeping With The Enemy] Latest documents show ties between NSA & Internet companies. Link    

I wonder what the school science teachers around here are telling their students about global warming these days?

[Poverty Prison] Columbia, SC demands homeless people go away or go to jail. Link

As dawn brightens, watch the waning crescent Moon passing Jupiter, Mars, and company in the eastern sky. (Positions are drawn for the middle of North America.)

[Spam of the Day] We have concluded today to effect your payment via Western Union, $5000 daily until your total compensation fund of $45,000 is completely transferred to you. Now do contact us with your full information such as your name, address, phone, etc. (Ed: We’re giving you $45,000 even though we don’t know your name?)

[Free Electric on No Name Key] Someone asked to see a contract. They don’t think it cost $30,000 to hook up. All you have to do is call Keys Energy and ask them. That is the electric company in Key West. It cost $650,000 for the poles and to put them in, then the lawyers’ fees. All that was split up among the people that signed up to receive electric. That amount came to $30,000 to be paid before you get hooked up. So before you start saying, “No way, I want to see a contract” just call the electric company.

Too beautiful to be real? Surreal landscapes found on Earth. Link 

FEMA invites you to join the National Preparedness Community and download the 2013 National Preparedness Month Toolkit. The National Preparedness Community is where more than 28,000 people connect and collaborate on emergency preparedness. You can use the community and the Toolkit to empower yourself to prepare and coordinate preparedness activities with your family, neighbors, and those with whom you worship during National Preparedness Month. Subscribe to receive alerts during disasters in your state. Link

If you are using the popular freeware Orbit Downloader application, you need to uninstall and remove it immediately. PC World has the details:

Recent versions of Orbit Downloader, a popular Windows program for downloading embedded media content and other types of files from websites, turns computers into bots and uses them to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks. The lesson to be learned here is that you should be very careful what applications you use. Even freeware applications can contain stuff that you don’t realize is there, from spyware to actual malware. Your best bet is to always stick with open source software from reputable publishers.

[Medical Marijuana] Cocoa Beach City Council member Skip Williams put a somewhat controversial topic on Thursday’s council agenda.  He asked fellow city leaders if the city cares where medical marijuana pharmacies, dispensaries and clinics could end up if approved by the state. Video

[Syria] Good intentions aside, we should stay out of Syria and let that mess play out, then do business with what’s left.   Don’t worry about how we look to the rest of the World, they will always hate us  and laugh at us no matter what we do;  Hell knows, as far as that goes, we even hate each other.   And besides, who cares about them anyway, we have a lot of nukes and the worlds biggest economy–for the time being.

[“Republicans in Congress have little incentive to do anything to help the rest of us”] That is called survival of the fittest and is the way it should be!

[“Republicans in Congress have little incentive to do anything to help the rest of us”]  This comment pretty much sums up what’s wrong with the country today.  I’m old enough to remember when JFK was president.  In his inaugural address, he made the statement, “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”  He was a democrat.  Today, some people expect to be taken care of from birth to the grave.  It’s a disgrace.

The good news about America in 2013 is that if you’re a Lefty and you want a racial incident to fire up the troops, you pretty much have to make it up yourself.

France’s Socialist government has admitted that the country cannot cope with any further tax rises and promised no more hikes just days ahead of the country’s largest ever tax bill. In an unfortunate piece of timing, however, the pledge came just as the environment minister announced the creation of a new “carbon tax” and amid reports that the overall tax pressure on French households will rise even further next year.

I don’t get it. Why aren’t all you Obama haters out there jumping all over the FBI-Michael Hastings and NSA controversies? It’s the Executive Branch we are talking about here. You know, the one that Obama heads.

On Friday  a couple of posters criticized me for writing about the ’72 Dolphins and the character of the three team members who chose not to attend an Obama photo op because of their deeply held convictions. I admire those three guys. That’s not to say that any other team member should or should not have attended the Obama photo op. It was strictly a personal choice.

Have no doubt about it, the photo op was nothing more than a naked Obama gambit to have positive press in Miami. It worked. It was PR magic.  Even while supposedly honoring the ‘72 Dolphins Obama could not resist making the event about himself. At one point he waxed eloquent on how good a team Chicago fields, the Bears, “his team.”  Obama said that they very nearly joined the Dolphins in having a perfect season. That year the Bears lost only one game. I could have kissed Don Shula when he chimed in that it was the Dolphins who beat the Bears that year. This Old Fart did not make the issue political, the White House did.

Part 2) “The Republican Party is controlled by the wealthy and the wealthy are doing very, very well as we all know by now.  This means that Republicans in Congress have little incentive to do anything to help the rest of us.” At least that’s the thinking of one of Friday’s posters.

There is so much wrong with that that it cries out for a response. First of all, the real power in both parties lies in the deep pockets of those who contribute to candidates. The current darlings of the glitterati and the uber wealthy are the Democrats, there is no doubt about that. The family Obama live like Arab potentates. Then there is the fact that the Democrats have had functional control of our governance for years. The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer under Democrat governance. There is no doubt about that. After 7 years of functional Democrat control of our governance, there are fewer people employed today than there were then..

Then there is the almost plaintive plea that “Republicans in Congress have little incentive to help the rest of us.”  I respectfully suggest that the poster should help himself or herself. If you’re not making enough money, do whatever it takes to get a better paying job. Education, networking, hard work all get the job done. If there’s no decent paying jobs where you live, move. Have self-respect. Tamping down self-respect is vital to the power of the Democrat Party. I have respect for one of my critics who probably is from the Keys, but found good paying work in the gas fields of Pennsylvania. Do yourself a favor and simply think. Budget your income, ditch what you don’t really need, and save. Think about starting your own business, but be prepared for headaches that you never experienced or even imagined as an employee.  The government is not your nanny, you’ve got to take care of yourself, earn your own way. If you want more than you have, work harder, live smarter. The Democrat Party could not exist if they did not have people like the plaintive poster to prey on.

Part 3) Just found, a video of Democrats protesting Republicans who criticize Team Obama. Link

“Global Warming Tipping Point Close?”–headline, ClimateArk.com, Jan. 27, 2004/”Warming Hits ‘Tipping Point’ “–headline, Guardian, Aug. 11, 2005/”Earth at the Tipping Point: Global Warming Heats Up”–headline, Time, March 26, 2006/”Global Warming ‘Tipping Points’ Reached, Scientist Says”–headline, NationalGeographic.com, Dec. 14, 2007/”Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near on Global Warming”–headline, Puffington Host, June 23, 2008/”Global Warming: Those Tipping Points Are Closer Than You Think”–headline, WSJ.com, April 29, 2009/”Have We Reached the Tipping Point for Planet Earth?”–video title, StudioTalk.tv, May 11, 2010/”Must-Read Hansen and Sato Paper: We Are at a Climate Tipping Point That, Once Crossed, Enables Multi-Meter Sea Level Rise This Century”–headline, ThinkProgress.org, Jan. 20, 2011/”Earth: Have We Reached an Environmental Tipping Point?”–headline, BBC website, June 15, 2012/”In spite of the continued released [sic] of 90 million tons of global warming pollution every day into the atmosphere, as if it’s an open sewer, we are now seeing the approach of a global political tipping point.”– Al Gore, interview with Washington Post, Aug. 21, 2013

Seriously the anti-science cult left has absolutely no self-awareness.