[Stick and Stein’s Demise] In 1979 my mom bought me a Kawasaki KZ 1000 for graduation. The next day I took off to Key West to see my cousins. The trip took 1hr 4 minutes. god, that bike was fast! One lone deputy tried to stop us in Marathon, but we just waved bye bye and kept flying down, the then deserted, US1. First stop in Key West was Stick and Stein. I’ve been enjoying the place every since.

Last night’s going away party was akin to a funeral for a old friend. The Keys has lost 2 really good bars now Boca Chica and Stick’s. You locals that moved here with the housing bubble haven’t got a clue what the Keys are, or were about. Thanks Steve, Mouse and Marci for some wonderful times in a great locals bar.

[Truthiness] I agree with the pollster who said, ignore those who feel they are the only ones who know what the truth is. However I like the addition of jokes, especially the rabbit one. It balances the naysayers and the political activists who are so bias as to believe everything or nothing the government says. Let’s be honest, who would spend over $ 200,000 for a job that lasts 2 to 6 years. Who passes laws to give themselves a raise. Who passes laws, then says they do not apply to me. Who passes laws when they have neither read the law, nor intend to be part of it.

That is what we have in Washington. Do as I say, not as I do. Well, we voted them in and are too dumb to vote them out. When you find a government problem look in a mirror to see the problem.

[White Line Fever] I had a friend who once got a job painting lines on the road with a hand operated line machine. His first and last job was painting the line on the right side of the roads in Old Town Key West. He had to start at dawn because that was the only time with little traffic. He was faced with the problem of parked cars, and there wasn’t anyone in the office yet to call, so he painted the line from the curb and around the parked cars. That was also his last day on the job. It was really something when the parked cars moved and everyone could see this squiggly line going all down Eaton Street.

Bacon is the duct tape of food.

[Casteller] Piles of people! Video

[Grinder Pumps] Friday’s News-Barometer has a letter to the editor by John Ulrich regarding the county commissioners allowing FKAA to carry on with plans of 2,800 grinder pumps for a wastewater system that only needs 800.  The $14 million needed on a regular basis for maintenance of pumps, versus $1 million needed for gravity system maintenance (which FKAA acknowledges will be needed) will come from all our pockets — forever.  This shoebox cartoon could be labeled “Big Bird Bubba” kicks out citizen asking a question.

Does anyone know how I might be able to contact Beyonce the singer sensation. I have tried but no luck. I need to get word to her about the Island she just bought in the Abacos. Thanks

Yellow watermelon?

[Directions for the Computer Challenged] For those eager to peruse the Senior Center’s calendar for July, 2013, but uncertain as to how to get to it:
1. Scroll up to the masthead of the Coconut Telegraph and click on  Menu.
2. Scroll down to and click on Continuing Events.
3. Scroll to AARP and click on July, 2013

Next month, as a test, I might not provide these instructions so write them down and put them someplace where you will find them a month from now.
July’13

[Cleanup] I am so excited that Winn Dixie is getting a good cleaning and stocking up on food, yeah! I spoke with one of the new management team the other day; they seem committed to cleaning up the store, bring us food that is not out of date, getting rid of the bugs in the flour, rice and pasta, and having helpful, friendly, English speaking employees. You can actually push your buggy through the aisles now. I would like to wish the new management team good luck. I was so impressed, I wrote Winn Dixie Corp. and gave them a good review.

[Climate Change Exiled] So now climate change is such a hot (pardon the pun) topic that now it is listed below “From The Right.” How wacko can we all be that we have are beyond FTR to talk about the weather?

[Regulators] The Oceans are about shot and everybody knows it.  Messing with the party sandbars like Marvin Keys and Picnic Island; and pulling out the casitas won’t  change anything at this stage of the game. 

The environmental standards in this country were pretty darn low when we were getting started.

[Regulators] Effective May 1 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ordered fisherman up North to reduce by 77 percent their catches of certain species of fish, including haddock, cod, and flounder. The suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, aims to block the regulations, claiming NOAA based them on questionable science and did not take into account the potentially disastrous economic impacts they would have on fisherman.

Can’t we in the Keys do this also?  Their regulations are seriously becoming a detriment to fishermen and those who live off the sea.

Carbon levels do not increase temperatures. The last 17 years’ temperatures have decreased. There is no global warming. They are lying to make money. Sea levels have not risen at all. Do not be a lemming.

On the day of the event walk your dog before dusk. This reduces the likelihood of fireworks being let off.

Provide distractions such as a new chew or toy. Close curtains and put the TV or music on to mask the sound of fireworks. Don’t punish your dog when he is scared. Ignore any fearful behaviour such as panting, shaking and whining, this will only make your dog more distressed. Try not to leave your dog alone when fireworks are going off. Keep your routine as normal as possible.

After the event leave the Adaptil Diffuser plugged in for at least a week. Behavioural therapy may be required once the firework season is over.

The maddening heat wave is from the Jet Stream moving west to east and is caused by the 2 billion Chinese over-cooking their rice.

Keys will light up to mark the 4th of July. Link

Wastewater funding. Round 2.  Link

[“Journal on climate change”] Here is my computer model. In 60-100 years most of us will be dead so who gives a damn?

The July waning crescent Moon passes landmarks of Taurus. The visibility of faint objects in twilight is exaggerated here; binoculars help. The blue 10° scale is about the width of your fist at arm’s length.

[Immigration in the Keys] If you really want to do something about illegal immigrants in the Keys and provide work for locals, there is an easy solution. 90% of the illegals here work for landscape and lawn care companies. Most of the money they make, they send back to Guatemala or Mexico so that mommy and daddy can build a house. They spend a minimum amount of money in this country for necessities only. To make matters worse there are companies that are owned by Guatemalans that married here for a green card (eventually) and yes, you guessed it, divorced their wives as soon as possible.  The problem also is that most of the landscape work done here is provided to snow birds, that could care less who takes care of their lawn.  If you want to stop it then educate people about this situation.

Please don’t insult my intelligence by trying to debate insignificant points about this post that are not germane to the facts. Any fool can criticize any point, that is easy, but to grasp the big picture and proceed to work on the solution will indicate that you are actually concerned and not just using this forum to be critical of any post regardless of its intent.

All the BS advertisements for testosterone are a riot. As horny as us guys are, we need more? Are you kidding me? What we need is to share what we have, babe!

The Looe Key Tiki’s policy of having a duo on Saturday night once again forced myself and others to go to Boondocks to hear a real band. The crowd at the Tiki is much smaller when they do not have a full band on Saturday. C’mon guys, pony up a few more dollars and get a full band on Saturday nights. You will easily make the extra band expenses up in bar revenue.

[Windows 8] Indeed it is totally asinine and repulsive. It’s designed to be a touchscreen operating system targeted chiefly at non-computer using type consumers as it’s predicted that tablets will outstrip traditional PC sales by 2015.

What Windows 8 is doing on a desktop machine is unknown at this time, perhaps they have done so much copying that they forgot about usage patterns and ergonomics. I’m not getting “Gorilla Arm” using it that’s for sure. Good thing one can buy machines from the likes of Dell, HP and Segar which Windows 7 Pro+ will also run Windows XP software or even download XP and virtualize it in Win 7 Pro+. Also Windows 8 Pro+ can be downgraded to Windows 7.

But you won’t find these Windows 7 Pro machines at your local office store, you’ll have to shop online and even pull your business use juice card. But like 47% of computers out there and nearly all businesses are using Windows 7 chiefly, most of the other half is still on XP still.

Windows 8 is having a worst adoption rate than Vista, and we all know how much that was total junk.

Windows 7 will get support until 2020, so while Microsoft is showing Windows 8 on one hand, the other hand is busy slinging Windows 7 machines out the back door to large scale installations. So avoid the stores and shop online, buy a good machine that will last the next 7 years. It’s taking Microsoft a bit more time than usual to figure out they got a lemon on their hands.

Oh, don’t bother to get a Mac either, they are doing far worse things and you’ll have to change your operating system every one to two years, so it’s even worst than on Windows.

[Experts] In case you have not noticed, everyone down here is a master at everything.

[Advertising Abuse] It’s not hard to believe that  a leasing company is using the 9/11 “falling man” photo in a TV ad.  I guess business is just business, do anything for a buck.

DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Commissions advanced research for DoD. It was founded in response to the surprise Sputnik launch in 1958 and fathered the Internet somewhere along the way. Link

Fanci Seafood will be closed on Sundays until August. Everyone have a great summer!

[“Computer models predict annual global snowfall”] Anyone who has worked with computer models know they are only as good as their input. A good programmer can make a model do anything he wants. Taking long range predictions seriously from a model as complex as a climate model is dumb, dumb dumb. Politicians tend to use them as a means to sell their programs.

[Anchoring on Coral] When I moved the the Keys back in 1975 I was a tropical fish store owner from up north and was taught how to catch tropicals from the local guys that grew up here. When it came to anchoring at the reef; a rock anchor was required and it needed to be placed in the coral to assure your boat was still there when the dive ended. Now if you can even see live coral it is illegal to put down any anchor.

[Preserving the Past] Thank you for your efforts to bring back the back issues of the Mangrove. Maybe if anybody had put the Navigator on line it would be the place to see how the Keys were warned about the bureaucrats that were going to come and make our life better.

The Mangrove the Navigator and for a while the Barometer fought the surge of crap that was coming our way via the Nature Conservancy. After the sewers are in and all of the holdouts have left – then we will see the new Nature Conservancy Lodge being built on their acreage for a nice nature holiday of watching the deer and the buzzards. We can play golf on the new Billy Causey golf course that can be seen from the old zip line now extended to the old 7 mile bridge nature walk. All of the old homesteads have been torn down and remain behind the barbed wire that protects the back country from trespassers.

I loved the old papers that really said something instead of the drivel we get now.

[A final toast for the Doolittle Raiders] On a Tuesday past , in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last time. Link

[Prejudice] “Alec Baldwin insists he doesn’t hate gays– just “queens” — and that’s just the beginning of the mind-numbingly stupid explanation he just released in the wake of his homophobic Twitter rant.”

And by now Deen’s crimes are well known. Among other offenses, she’s confessed to saying she wanted “a bunch of little niggers” to dress up in antebellum finery for an Old South-style wedding feast she was throwing. (Ed don’t edit that word. That is the word the left claims they are allowed to use to describe a person with a different skin color. That is not our word. This is why they are so incensed and believe they are being persecuted for speaking thier racist minds )

Watching a bunch of leftist Democrats scramble after exposing the insufferable homophobic racism that defines the the left and always has ;watching these same bigots project their hate onto others always proclaiming and pointing at everyone but themselves is nothing new. But watching the overtly racist baiters of CNN and NYT choke on their defense of the indefensible is finally bringing light back onto the party that gave us racist hate, gave us the KKK, gave us white supremacy for exactly the same reason; political power. You see folks these aren’t just our ordinary racist, homophobic Democrats. These bigots raised huge sums of money for the racist left. This money has allowed them to promote their intolerance and impose their wretched ideologies through America’s political process. All the while pointing fingers and pretending it’s anyone else but them.

[Gun Nuts] U.S. Park Police lose track of guns. Lots and lots of guns. Government officials are awfully concerned about how we mere private citizens manage our firearms. Link

I didn’t sleep well last night. I’m still not completely sure that the Y2K change over will be trouble free, and sometimes it disrupts my sleep, oh well.

[Fireworks] It’s Saturday night and all of our patriots are setting off their explosions.

[FKAA Good] A couple of things I have noticed about the FKAA over the years is that I have never had a problem with the water at my house and they have the easiest to use website of all of them when I want to pay my water bill online.

[Nighttime Image of Texas Cities] One of the Expedition 36 crew members aboard the International Space Station, some 240 miles above Earth, used a 50mm lens to record this oblique nighttime image of a large part of the nation’s second largest state in area, including the four largest metropolitan areas in population. The extent of the metropolitan areas is easily visible at night due to city and highway lights.

The largest metro area, Dallas-Fort Worth, often referred to informally as the Metroplex, is the heavily cloud-covered area at the top center of the photo. Neighboring Oklahoma, on the north side of the Red River, less than 100 miles to the north of the Metroplex, appears to be experiencing thunderstorms. The Houston metropolitan area, including the coastal city of Galveston, is at lower right. To the east near the Texas border with Louisiana, the metropolitan area of Beaumont-Port Arthur appears as a smaller blotch of light, also hugging the coast of the Texas Gulf. Moving inland to the left side of the picture one can delineate the San Antonio metro area. The capital city of Austin can be seen to the northeast of San Antonio.

[Missing Package]  I went down to the post office to see if my shipment had arrived. It hadn’t. I must have looked sad, because the cute blonde said she would track my package if I wanted, but I had to decline because the place was full of people. It just wasn’t my day, I guess.

Rare bird last seen in Britain 22 years ago reappears – only to be killed by wind turbine in front of a horrified crowd of birdwatchers. Splat! Link

How come when they show a picture of a couple, the gal has her hand on the guy’s chest pushing him away from her chest? Is that a signal to other guys who may be watching that she is still available for mating?

USDA Tells Magician to Write Disaster Plan for His Rabbit Before he can get a permit. “I need to have in place a written disaster plan, detailing all the steps I would take to help get my rabbit through a disaster, such as a tornado, fire, flood, etc. They not only want to know how I will protect my rabbit during a disaster, but also what I will do after the disaster, to make sure my rabbit gets cared for properly.” Link

[Captain Doom and Gloom] The wife and I made a life shaking decision. We are not going to frequent any libation station that charges more than $4.00 per libation and it better be in a decent size glass not crammed with ice and cheap booze either. I cannot handle paying $350 per gallon or more for a toxic liquid that I really do not need in the first place.

Try this: 3 parts Bombay Extra Dry Gin. 1 part Luksusowa Potato Vodka, 1/2 part Lillet, lemon peel. Stir slowly over ice and gently pour into large champagne coupe[?]. Do not shake else you will be assassinated by the libationists! Never shake any libation unless it contains, fruits, vegetables, dead animal parts and is ordered by a dingbat.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. ~Benjamin Franklin

[Information gathering] I’m not all that concerned about the feds compiling information about everyone. What chaps my ass is thousands of douche bags getting paid to do it. Can you imagine how many people it will take to plow through all that data? IRS running the health care system? Man are we screwed!

[“Very little from the left on Snowden”] That’s because we think of him as a patriot who risked his life to tell Americans what we already suspected. He gave us the proof. Since when is the truth not good for America. Is that the new America the Right wants us to accept. I refuse.

[“Spying on Us”] Former FBI counterterrorism agent Tim Clemente confirmed Snowden’s allegations, and told CNN: Welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not. No digital communication is secure.

FTR’s arrow should point right. To use the driving analogy, I assume he’s making his statements as a man who’s turned right and is now on the straightaway to making sense — and smithereens out of the left. Not to mention the arrow pointing right keeps the symbolism strong.

[Racism is the Left’s  Problem] “Alec Baldwin insists he doesn’t hate gays– just “queens” — and that’s just the beginning of the mind-numbingly stupid explanation he just released in the wake of his homophobic Twitter rant.

And by now Deen’s crimes are well known. Among other offenses, she’s confessed to saying she wanted “a bunch of little niggers” to dress up in antebellum finery for an Old South-style wedding feast she was throwing. (Ed don’t edit that word. That is the word the left claims they are allowed to use to describe a person with a different skin color. That is not our word. This is why they are so incensed and believe they are being persecuted for speaking thier racist minds 

Watching a bunch of leftist Democrats scramble after exposing the insufferable homophobic racism that defines the the left and always has; watching these same bigots project their hate onto others always proclaiming and pointing at everyone but themselves is nothing new. But watching the overtly racist baiters of CNN and NYT choke on their defense of the indefensible is finally bringing light back onto the party that gave us racist hate, gave us the KKK, gave us white supremacy for exactly the same reason; political power. You see folks these aren’t just our ordinary racist, homophobic Democrats. These bigots raised huge sums of money for the racist left. This money has allowed them to promote their intolerance and impose their wretched ideologies through America’s political process. All the while pointing fingers and pretending it’s anyone else but them.

[Spies Like Us] 1. Someone was curious as to what Democrats think of Ed Snowden. This person from the democratic middle thinks Snowden is a damn traitor. He was entrusted with security information in this country and betrayed that trust. Wouldn’t bother me if he was brought back to this country in handcuffs and waterboarded to see what all he gave out.

2. How can people not know the Keystone pipeline is being built?

3. The reason unemployment was lower years ago was because more people gave up searching for a job when a Republican was in office.  Didn’t you notice the term “Under employed” wasn’t used until Bush was the President?

4. Wow, Rick Scott is going to miss his promise of 700,000 new jobs in 7 years by hundreds of thousands. Bet the right uses the standard “Its Obamas fault” excuse.

5. Still have not found anything tastier then stone crab claws with the wifes mustard sauce.

6. This is pretty interesting since weve been getting daily information about Obamas war against coal. It seems the countries biggest consumer of coal has been amenable to our President. That’s according to American Electric Power in Columbus Ohio. Tammy Ridout AEP spokewoman told news sources that The president appears to be taking a balanced approach to addressing the issue”. Shes went on to say that his “focus on resilience, clean coal technologies,

electric vehicles, energy efficiency and transmission investment demonstrates that the administration is looking at a full portfolio of actions to address the issue not just cutting emissions from power plants and we look forward to working with the administration to support those efforts”. Hmmm believe the people that bash our President or listen to the words from Americas number 1 user of American coal. That’s a tough one but Im thinking I may have to listen to the coal users themselves. It was close though.

Here, do it Right!

[“Mr President: fix problems like unemployment, health care, expanding deficit”] I think the President’s got someone working on the healthcare thing and it will go into effect at the beginning of the year. It’ll be tumultuous few years for all of us because he’s taking apart the present system and building it all over again. We’re going to have a new health care system in America. A monumental effort, one filled will deep pitfalls.

As I understand you Rightsters, we are actually going into another ice age.   Could you explain to me in simple layman’s terms what is going to happen to our species and our planet as this scenario evolves?  Should I buy more ammo?  How much ammo do you recommend I stockpile, at a minimum?  Thanks for your input.

[Pipeline] It would be worth the cost to the environment and the wastefulness of the whole thing to just go ahead and build the freeking Keystone Pipeline if that’s what it takes to end the relentless chanting of  the right wing Republican wackadoodles over this issue.

On Friday a poster criticized my take on the Keystone pipeline. The posting was interesting but was simply wrong on a number of points.

The poster intimated that Obama has been a supporter of Keystone. What follows is a quote from an ABC news story dated 1/18/12. “The Obama administration today formally rejected a bid by Canadian energy company TransCanada to build a $7 billion oil pipeline linking the tar sands of Alberta to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico.” That’s the KeystoneXL, also known as phase 4.

The poster claimed that some segments of the line now being operational proves that Obama is a supporter of the line. That’s an interesting, but wrong,  position given that the segments of the Keystone line that are in place and functioning were begun before Obama took office. President GWB signed the approval in March of 2008.

The poster claimed that the (XL the final segment) pipeline approval was being held up by Nebraska’s governor and the US Congress. That’s not true.  The fact is that Nebraska’s Governor Heinemann, notified Obama on January 23, 2013 by letter that he approved of the currently proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline. That’s per the Huffington Post.

The poster claimed that the line requires Congressional approval. That is not true.  The approval of the line and the route is in the purview of the Secretary of State, and ultimately the President.  However there is a theory the Congress can bypass the President and can require, through legislation, the approval of the line. There is a movement afoot to do just that because of Obama’s refusal to approve of the line. If you’re interested in seeing a map of the line, check out Link

Deer Friends there is no rational doubt but that Mr. Obama presents as a savage foe of fossil fuels. Please never forget that he has voiced his opinion that he favors a substantial increase in our fossil fuel energy prices. The Keystone XL will have the effect of dropping energy prices and creating jobs.

We now know that a whale contributor and fund raising aggregator stands to make millions if the pipeline never gets built. We also know that Canada will sell its oil to China if the pipeline never gets built.  Let’s hope that neither of those facts have influence Mr. Obama’s decision to block it.

Part 2) Another poster frothed at my take on Obama. Obama is a newbie to supporting fracking. His green base excoriated him for “going soft” on the issue. The history of his opposition to fracking is clear.

In July of 2011 Obama nominated Rebeca Wodder to be the Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks for the Department of interior. Ms. Wodder was a fierce and outspoken critic of fracking. But during the confirmation hearings she was forced to admit, that she knew of no confirmed instances wherein fracking has affected water. This contrary to her earlier testimony to a Senate Committee wherein she claimed that fracking “has a nasty track record of creating a toxic chemical soup that pollutes groundwater and streams…” Please remember that Wodder was Obama’s handpicked choice. Even though Obama was forced to drop her nomination, she still remains as a Senior Advisor.

Obama and his green base have zealously sought out ways to restrict fracking. In early 2012 the Obama administration  sent in his Department of Transportation to interfere with  the practice of fracking.  The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration struck a blow for the green team by suddenly reinterpreting a 50 year old rule that precludes truckers from working more than 11 hours a day.  But, truckers who haul water and sand to drilling sites were exempted from that old rule. Link

Truckers on drilling sites spend hours each day waiting around until one rig or another needs water or sand. This is why, ever since the 11-hour trucking safety rule was adopted in 1962, truckers who haul water and sand to drilling sites have been exempted. There is no issue of road fatigue, the focus of the 11-hour rule. Nonetheless, the  Transportation Department’s reinterpretation eliminates this exemption, disproportionately affecting sites where fracking is employed. Voila – environmental regulation without the hassles of justifying it scientifically, as would be required for an EPA action.

Obama may have had a “Come to Jesus” moment regarding fracking in early 2012 when his EPA backed out of several law suits against those nasty frackers.

Obama has been working on new regulations for fracking for years.  Only recently the new rules were published. Both the greens and the industry were aghast at them. The greens felt that they were not restrictive enough and the industry condemned them. Yep, Obama is a newbie supporter of fracking.  It’s safe to say that the only reasons for his change of heart is the number of new jobs the natural gas and fracking in general have and will continue to create. Let’s all hope that he finally approves Phase 4, Keystone XL. 

[Climate Change] Obama: ‘We will be judged on what we do about climate change.”

Yes you will. Along with all the other charlatans, con artists and anti science leftist “greens” who stole hundreds of billions from the decent hardworking citizens in our communities and stuffed their greedy little pockets. This is a crime that will not go unpunished. The human community is going to hold you accountable.