Sunday, November 10, 2011

When I leave the Keys for any reason, I can’t wait to come back home. I love the smell of low tide. I love the Keys. America’s out islands.

[Welfare Not For the Well] Some people call me insensitive, but I don’t think so.  Perhaps a little “hardened” after 32 years of service to my country in the military, but not insensitive. I just don’t like my government requiring me to pay taxes in support of welfare programs like subsidized housing, food stamps, health care and the others, when they can’t adequately enforce standards regarding who receives benefit from such programs.  I give two cases in point;

I know a young man in his late 20’s to early 30’s who has a child with his girlfriend and works in a bar, part time.  Having stopped at the bar and seeing him for the first time in a while I asked, “How’s it going?”  He replied, “Not bad, things have been a little tight for a while.”  “Getting married soon?” I asked.  “No way.” he replied.  Deeper in the conversation, thinking of what might help out his situation I asked, “Well, how come you don’t work more hours here and if you can’t here, why not somewhere else?”  His answer; “Well, if I do that, then I won’t get my WIC and other government freebees.  Why work my ass off when I can get it all for free?  That’s why we’re not getting married. If we do, then they (the government) will combine our incomes and we won’t qualify for the freebees.”

As you might guess, I’ve become pretty irritated with the conversation and stated, “Oh, I get it!  You like getting all the freebies and don’t give a damn that I’m one of the many that have to pay your way.”  To that, I got a smile, a turn away and the cold shoulder that comes with it.  Folks, this is not a man with a disability or anything else wrong with him that prevents him from working.  This is a man that feels entitled and has figured a way to work the system so he can have more free time to play.  And there are thousands and thousands out there just like him.  So, fast forward to the present…

Key West, The Citizen newspaper, November 7th, 2013.  The Opinion page 4A.  The Editorial headline is: Food stamps: Lets keep the food on the table.  The article starts with “Food stamps are hardly a lavish federal benefit”, and goes on to explain why more people need it, who benefits and other such and ends with “Indeed, taking food from the mouths of poor people and their children is a disgraceful way to cut the federal budget.”  This all, I guess in response to current federal budget cuts.  So what makes me so angry?  Well, in the same paper, one page just before this editorial, on page 3A, top right in the Mile Marker section, there’s this article: “Drunk woman loses purse”.  Seems this woman at age 55, wandered off, feel asleep somewhere she didn’t belong, and woke up to notice her black leather Joe Boxer purse, “went missing” after a night of drinking.  And what’s missing now with the purse along with her ID and other things you ask? Her food stamp card!  I don’t know, but there must be nothing better than getting free or reduced priced food, so you can spend your own money getting drunk and passing out somewhere you don’t belong, but I can’t say, cause I’ve never had the pleasure.  All food stamps have done for this woman is enable her to waste her own money on alcohol.  One question,  if she drives and hurts someone after being out drinking, can the government be implicated as the enabler, along with the over-serving bar tender?  I wonder. 

Why not rerun the t-shirt photo? It would be pretty cool if we were all wearing one at the sewer meetings. Maybe FKAA management would finally understand how we feel about their crappy sewer system design. I heard that all the FKAA engineers involved in pushing the grinder pumps also have homes outside of Monroe County. So don’t count on dumping your “camp bucket” on their doorstep when their crappy sewer system crashes and your toilet won’t flush. Actually, it might be worth the drive if you let it set a week or two first. 

[Corrupt Military] As Balfour was shrugging off its duty to pay local property taxes, it was busy convincing the US Navy to allow it to sell large chunks of real estate in several military installations across the southeast; extremely profitable transactions. In Key West for instance, Balfour’s LLC was able to acquire 24-acre Peary Court from the Navy for free, then turn around and sell it in a private sale for $ 35 Million.

Even though the Navy has kept totally silent regarding Balfour’s real estate transactions, a stack of emails obtained by The Blue Paper through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal considerable in-house turmoil.  Link

[Forget Vail or the Alps] Copenhagen’s Amager Bakke power plant will soon top the list of hip ski destinations. Technically, it’s designed to turn garbage into energy via a potent incinerator, but starting in 2017, winter visitors will be able to ride an elevator up the corner and emerge into a snowy wonderland. At the top of the 280-foot-high roof-turned-slope, ski­ers will be able to zip through a landscape of pine trees (and air vents that double as quarter pipes). Iq In 2010 the plant’s management company held a competition to design the facade. Bjarke Ingels, head of an international architecture firm working on a design, felt like something was off. “We couldn’t escape the feeling that we were just making it look nice,” he says. “It lacked a clear benefit to the community.” Two weeks before the dead­line, a nearby waterskiing park spurred an idea. Ingels and his team wanted to make the incinerator a piece of social infrastructure and give the citi­zens of Copenhagen a place to play once the weather became too cold for water sports. Who’ll be satisfied with a regular power plant now? Not us.

[“Mac’s only redeeming feature is the ability to run multiple operating systems seamlessly”] Not correct. Macs will only seamlessly direct boot (using a partition) one other Windows operating system, then only certain versions of Windows depending upon the OS X version (partition) and it’s Recovery (partition) and UEFI (partition) on the drive. Anything else (Linux, XP, BSD etc) is a unsupported kludge hack and a hunt for EFI bootloaders and near non-existant hardware drivers (Apple doesn’t supply) that such an adventure resides entirely in hackerspace, much like getting their OS X to run on generic PC hardware is.

If your talking virtual machines and willing to accept a lack of graphics card acceleration, then the Mac hardware (with enough RAM/CPU cores) can run one more operating system (OS X) and version (OSX server) than a Windows or Linux based PC. Since it’s possible to hack OS X to work in vm software on Linux/Windows PC it’s not necessary to buy Apples overpriced/poor graphics hardware. 

The Great Lakes ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior November 10, 1975. It was 38 years ago today when all 29 men aboard the 729′ ship perished. I was a deckhand at the time on a sister ship “J. R. Sensibar” which was owned by the same company as the Fitz. I knew Karl Peckol from Ashtabula, Ohio who went down with the Fitzgerald.

“Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?” — Gordon Lightfoot. Video

The realization that there is always a coincidental drill right before a major incident takes place has now become a fact. The link below is the actual news conference given to the public, by the Mayor of Los Angeles, and his LEO officials. Notice that just like in every other prior incident the FBI spokesman Spec. Agent Dan Bowdich refuses to give any details.

What is extremely interesting is the comments from Police Chief Gannon. At 5:45 on the video the Chief mentions how a drill had taken place “for the same exact incident that took place, at LAX” Notice the body language of Spec. Agent Bowdich, the Mayor and the man wearing glasses standing behind the Mayor, when the Chief discloses this information. Notice the eye contact taking place between all 3 men while the Chief lets out this information. Video

[“My property has been de-valued”] Come on up-state. Maybe Lake Placid area or somewhere north of the big water lake. It’s nice here in Central Florida. Florida seasons and pleasant weather, lakes, fishing, swimming, reasonable taxes, no bridges, and no flood insurance if you pay attention to where you buy. No grinder pumps either. Life here is good.

If you think you live in ‘paradise’ – stay there and endure what it is.

[Free Lunch] Veterans Day free meals at over 60 restaurants! Link

[Citizen of the Day Says] Key West is its own little world.

The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, historically referred to as the ‘Big Blow,’ the ‘Freshwater Fury,’ or the ‘White Hurricane,’ was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that devastated the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario from November 7 through November 10, 1913 — 100 years ago. The deadliest and most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, the Great Lakes Storm killed more than 250 people, destroyed 19 ships, and stranded 19 others. Link

City transforms landfill’s methane into natural gas for City vehicles. Link

[Wanted: Dry Tortugas Vendors] Interested in running concessions at Dry Tortugas National Park 70 miles west of Key West? Link

[Constitution Question of the Day] The Founding Fathers designed checks and balances into the government they designed. The check against an overbearing federal government in the legislative branch was:

A.     Review of legislation by the Supreme Court.
B.     Presidential veto.
C.     Senators appointed by and answerable to State Legislatures.
D.     None of the above.

Friday’s answer: The form of government established by the US Constitution is a Constitutional Republic. Although the government run schools, the media, and even the President continually refer to the United States as a “Democracy” it is not. We have strong democratic/representative principles designed into our government. It is however, a Republic. The most significant difference is in our Republic you always////////////have certain rights which are guaranteed by the Constitution, in a Democracy the only rights acknowledged are the rights which a majority are willing to grant you. The Founding Fathers were dead set against a Democracy. Benjamin Franklin described a Democracy as two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.

If enough Americans believe the fiction of our Country being a Democracy then it will be easier for government to violate the Constitution and your rights by saying that the majority are in favor of it.

Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun. It is the tactical version with a 18 1/2 inch barrel and can hold 6 rounds plus 1 in the chamber. It also has ghost ring sights and magpul forend and stock for less recoil. I bought it last December for Christmas for $ 750 and only shot it a few times. It looks brand new. I am asking $450. Please call Kevin at Classified Ads > Miscellaneous

[County Spending] What was all that mumbo jumbo explaining how the County Commission gave $2.7 million in our tax money toward the interests of the Pigeon Key-7 Mile Bridge faction?  I guess that is literally chump (us) change nowadays.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Let’s remember that this nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. Thank you for your service.  ~Coconuts

Odd how I can be on hold for 40 minutes while a recorded voice repeats, “Your call is important to us”.

Marijuana legalization wins big in elections. Is Federal decriminalization next?   Link

[Freedom of Information Isn’t Free] If the School District gets its way BPK’s Larry Murray will have to pay $4,400 for public records. Link

I have been following the progress of that big hurricane in the Philippines.  It looks like these things usually, somewhat, peter out when their winds start rubbing on land.  Too bad there isn’t much land around here.

[Lies] It’s a funny thing about people and lies. If a lie lasts long enough, and is repeated enough, it becomes a kind of truth. Not a real truth of course just a lie that’s become accepted and respectable.

This story broke last year about Halloween decorations made at a prison camps where inmates were beaten and forced to work for free. They made things like tombstones sold at Kmart. Link

[Paving the Way] Thank you, thank you, thank you to the guys who re- paved the Highway on Little Torch.  What a difference.   Nice job and I really appreciate it.  Can’t say I will miss all the holes I learned to dodge around over the years.

Here is another article on grinder pump problems. I can’t afford to hire an electrician to install the required 220 wiring needed for a grinder pump (my old house doesn’t even have 220 wiring), am angry that I have to pay for the permits for something I don’t want and can’t afford, don’t want a holding tank in my yard, and don’t want an outside electric box attached to my house. My ground level house, built in the 60s, has already been devalued by the huge flood insurance increases that may occur, now grinder pumps.

I continue to ask why Koehn Subd. residents continue to be treated as second-class citizens. It’s been over 40 years since our horrible subdivision roads were re-paved despite County promises to do so various times over the years. Yet my taxes go up and up and up.

Wish that Mr. Drabinski, the man who exposed the dark side of grinder pumps, and fought and won to have grinder pumps removed from his Cudjoe neighborhood, could give us advice on how to get rid of them here. Link 

[Create Your Visited States Map] Where have you been? Link

You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choice.

[We Need An Advocate] What we need to do is to hire that lady from No Name Key [Putney] as some kind of lobbyist to stand in for us against the FKAA and the County Commission over this grinder pump situation. She certainly knew how to have her way over the NNK electrification issue for a long time even though she eventually lost that fight.   The time and technology wasn’t right for what she wanted, but you have to admire her fortitude.  This is what we need now.

[Cats] All of you lovers of free roaming, lovey dovey, wittle kitty cats ought to leave your usual state of denial for minute and check this out. Link

[Down with Crosswalks] Concerning the Crosswalks on Route 1 and other major roads, if my child, who is not the smartest rocket scientist in the Keys, decides to cross a road and thinks all the cars and trucks will stop for his dumb ass, then gets hit or killed, I will not only sue this state, but file criminal charges against the county and state assholes who passed this ridiculous law and painted those damn crosswalks.

Wanted. 130-150hp outboard, preferably Yamaha, but will consider an Evinrude ETEC. Call Paul. Classified Ads > Wanted

The key to getting along with people is to either lower your expectations or learn to drink.

Outdoor living furniture for sale. Awesomely comfortable chaise lounge with water resistant thick cushions. Medium size circular table (approx 48” diameter) seats four – heavy duty fiberglass. Two swing chairs with water resistant thick cushions. Small rectangular side table – heavy duty fiberglass. Perfect for single person or couple. Originally cost $500 will sell for $150 OBO. Phone 262-894-2344 Little Torch Key. Classified Ads >  Furniture

I am not sure which is worst from several of our friends who post here: the rampant paranoia or the pervasive cynicism.

[“Idea”]  My car horn kept going off because I’d bump the red button on the remote many times until three years ago I opened the case and removed the little stem that attaches to the red button. No more horn blowing! I am now happy. You can be too.

Two tips of the FDR fedora to our Deer Ed. The “Museum” section of the Coconut Telegraph is a great read and well worth your time.  To get there simply click on “Menu” then scroll down to “Big Pine Museum”  It looks like our Deer Ed has put a lot of work into this. Good job, Deer Ed.

[Shortcut] The cost of a traffic ticket for cutting through, say the BPK Walgreens parking lot,  is around $150.   Also when your car insurance company (assuming you have one) finds out they will happily raise your rates $200 or $300 bucks a year for 3 or 4 years.  So go ahead, Mr. or Mrs. Sharpy,  make their day.

Thanks for the app to dim the computer screen at night. I get up early, and have always felt assaulted by the bright screen as I wait for my coffee. Link

[Marathon Report] Grass in the Marathon dog park at the Rotary Park is nice – versus the dirt that used to be there

FedEx parking lot in Marathon needs pea rock.  When driving through to get to the office to drop off your boxes, you rock and roll through there like crazy.  FedEx charges enough that a few tons of pea rock is a little price to pay to keep customers happy.

“After I saw this, I put down my…” video never loaded ….”an error occurred, please try again later.” Looking forward to seeing it.

Chinese restaurant in BPK is till better than Panda House in Marathon.

Who put up the orange ribbons in the median throughout Marathon?  Nice.

Am loving Baricci deli adjacent to Publix.

[“Not concerned about Google/Android devices tracking”] All cellphones are being tower triangulation tracked/recorded by carriers, even dumb phones. The only benefit appears to give a general location for 911 calls, FBI finding missing people and of course NSA tracking. Carriers also provide all call records to the spooks also. Fine, at least Big Brother keeps it private.

Google is a advertising company, their privacy violations are numerous and have plenty of publicity, they grab whatever they can and use it or sell to others. I’ve bashed them numerous times and wouldn’t consider for a second using their spyware laden junk.

Apple on the other hand we expect more from [Google] as it’s a hardware company with integrated software. They claim they are not interested in your data, but then force your data to pass online where others who are interested can mine it or installs CarrierIQ type spyware. Apple is lazy and incompetent in handling users data/privacy matters. so basically they can’t be trusted with any of it.

[“Our County Commissioners must not spend a dime on pet projects until sewers are flowing on all our islands and this would include the squandering of our tax dollars to purchase Rowell’s Marina”]  Sure!  If you believe that the County Commission will do the right thing you also believe in the Tooth Fairy.  The fix is in. They will squander millions to buy a defunct marina with no business plan, no plan to pay for the rehab, remodel, re-landscape or on-going maintenance and operation. (as usual they will use collective tax money to do it by re-allocation of funds) and meanwhile shoving grinder pumps up our collective backsides as far as possible unless the people rise up and demand a more sensible (gravity) solution.

Follow the money.  Some of these so called community leaders likely stand to make a fortune on the grinder pump fiasco as the little envelopes are passed under the table or promises of jobs in the future. 

She was as pure as the new fallen snow, but she drifted, so we plowed her.

What in the world is going on in Key Largo? Well, we’re headed down to the cement pond while my raccoon is soaking in brine. Link

Thanks for the Wilhelm Roentgen Birthday shout out! In 1902 he was awarded the Nobel prize for his work. Another Jewish conspiracy of course. Almost 20 percent of Nobel Prizes have been won by this ethnic group that comprises less than 0.2% of the population.

[“Charlie Crist,ask anyone from NJ, especially teachers”] What does Charlie Crist have to do with New Jersey?

[Satire] Regressives unite! It’s important that we get our word out. We can’t let those scum bag liberals vote for giving the children, the elderly, the poor and the veterans food. They’re all lazy bums on drugs and they could go out and get jobs if they weren’t so lazy. We need to stop the Wic Program that provides formula for infants. Once they’re born, they’re on their own and should work for their milk. We need to fire more teachers and do away with the Dept. of Education so we can all start teaching our own kids advanced chemistry and trigonometry. Homeschooling is the only way to go. Don’t let the liberals raise the minimum wage. Let those fast food lazy punks work 80 hours per week. We Regressives need to stick together and keep the women barefoot and pregnant. Down with equal pay and down with birth control and choice. We need to cleanse our country of Gays, minorities, immigrants and Muslims. We can put the deficit on hold until the full border, trillion dollar electric fence is built. We need to keep the country shut down and not pay our bills. We’ll show them who’s boss. We need to write our Congressmen and tell them to use their time wisely. We want more votes against Obamacare, more filibusters, more Dr. Seuss, and more hearings against anything and everything that Barack H. Obama is for. Let’s all work hard to impeach our Kenya born, Muslim, Communist, golf playing President so we can have Joe.

Regressives unite! Don’t worry about our 22% approval rating. As long as we have our assault weapons, Ted Cruz, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Fox News, we will soon be victorious once again. God Bless Our Patriotism! God Bless America! Remember Regressives, the only change we’re for is Climate Change!

[Obamacare is Extortion] Now that I have your attention, think for a minute on how The Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare), is affecting millions of Americans, and the fact that you, will pay a penalty if you don’t comply.  If you don’t see the connection, likely you’re just one of many millions that expect me to pay your way through life.

Since 60 Minutes has issued an apology for its lies and deceptions on the Benghazi incident, isn’t it appropriate that Fox News should also issue an apology for the same thing.

The country was in a Bush-Cheney created near depression when Crist was the Governor of Florida. Just a reminder.

“The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”  ~Ronald Reagan

The Liberal ideology is a theory which holds forth beliefs that have no basis in reality. They are advocates of a policy that empowers a strong government to enslave its people with a high tax burden incident to the support of extravagant and unnecessary social programs destructive to both the work ethic among the lower class, and the incentive to innovate and succeed among the working class.

The problems we face today are because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.

A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy. A broken government can’t be fixed by the same government that broke it.

Part 1) Deer Friends, the Affordable Care Act has earned the sobriquet “Obamacare”, but that is not entirely appropriate. A better moniker would be Democare. The ACA was not written by Obama alone, it was completely and totally crafted by Democrats in a Democrat controlled House of Representatives and Senate. Obama was/is the shill. Its concept, structure, and implementation are solely the handiwork of the D/L/P’s. Republicans were totally and completely shut out. The Republicans had no influence on its content nor its rollout. No Republican voted for it. It is an exclusively Democrat dog and pony show. The Democare dog won’t hunt and the pony is spavined.

Remember Bush’s “great job Brownie” moment?  Obama has again followed Bush’s lead by saying: “I think Kathleen Sibelius has done a great job in setting up the insurance markets.”

The ACA is a shining example of the flaws in the Democrat ethos. Their ideas just don’t work.

Part 2) The October employment stats have been released by Team Obama. The new hires number was well better than expected. About 204,000 persons got hired last month. In the normal course of affairs, that would be pretty good news even though it is  far, far, below the number of hires that we need to get back to the pre-Democrat governance days of January 2007.     Then there were 145,957,000 Americans with a job – now, 143,568,000.  Then there were 7,017,000 unemployed Americans – now 11,272,000. Then there were 77,676,000 Americans who had quit the labor force – now 91,541,000. It is astonishing how far we have fallen in only a little more than 6 years of Democrat governance.

Bytheway, you may find it interesting that the unemployment rate for whites (6.3 percent), blacks (13.1 percent), Hispanics (9.1 percent), and Asians ( 5.2 percent), once again are little changed.

Then when we look just a little deeper into the report, we learn that the unemployment rate has actually increased. It’s now at 7.3%.  That’s probably because in October there were 735,000 fewer people with jobs than there were in September. Think about that: 3 times fewer people employed than were hired in just one month, October.  Perhaps worse, nearly a million more people left the labor force in October. That has led to an abysmal employed/population ratio of 58.3, nearly a half a percentage point less than it was a year ago.

D/L/P governance is dragging us backward.  Our economy is behaving like a drunk, one step forward, two backward.

Part 3) Team Obama is again grabbing  more and more power to regulate your lives. The FDA, last Thursday, announced new rules that will effectively ban the use of trans fats in foods or food production. The move will cost the food industry dearly and will put many persons out of jobs.

The efforts of the FDA to reduce trans fact consumption  in recent years have been educational, it has worked, the lelel of trans fats in the blood of the average person has declined by 58% from ’00 to ’09. There is no doubt but that trans fats have a negative effect on our cholesterol numbers, and that it is likely that excessive levels of trans fat can be a factor in increased rates of hear disease. But robbing the public of free choice is wrong, absolutely wrong.

The FDA claims that it’s new rules “could” prevent 7,000 deaths by further reducing the use of trans fats. To put than in perspective, 20,000 persons die from cancer caused by alcohol each year, 20,000 person die from in home falls each year, and each year, an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking.

Deer Friends, at least for the time being, there are no home police to make sure that you don’t take chances that could lead to a fall. Maybe that’s next. At least for the time being, consumption of tobacco and alcohol are lawful. But how much longer? One must wonder why Team Obama is spending tons of taxpayer money on this war against your choice of the foods you eat. Beware the new slim trim breed of federal cops that are charged with preventing you from eating a donut.