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2014 January

Thursday, January 30, 2014

CT-Banner7.3.13No Saturday Edition

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Pigeon-Key-solar-array[Historic Preservation] With all the controversy lately concerning preserving the look and feel of Old Town Key West and the use/misuse of modern materials I just had to chime in with an observation of my own about Pigeon Key!  
It used to be a quaint little piece of history with a charm all its own until that huge bank of solar panels was installed.  Those ugly black panels are now the first thing I notice while driving past on the Seven Mile Bridge.  I have always enjoyed the various artists’ renditions and photographs of the picturesque Key and sadly realize that the nostalgia that they portrayed has been sacrificed for the need to be “green”.  I have no doubt that renewable, clean energy is desirable but not at the expense of an historic educational experience.  My point would be made best by  imagining a huge wind turbine mounted atop the Washington Monument.  So it is with Pigeon Key. 
Flea-Market-ad10.9.13
[Iguana Control] Saying iguanas can’t be controlled is from someone who hasn’t tried with “a pellet to the head”. The three houses on my rural street no longer have iguana infestations, just the occasional iguana coming in from adjacent areas that don’t try to control the pests. Controlling iguanas is a lot easier than you may think. If the Refuge people really gave a damn about invasive species they’d place a bounty on them.

toilet-marbles

Good thing these parents don’t have a grinder pump.

What time is the meeting for “dump the pumps” in Key West? It’s on the 31st, right? 

ad-manley-deboer6.27.13

[“Curtailing back yard shooting”] Homeowner associations have no legal authority and the actual authorities are prohibited by law to even address the problem. Now that’s insane! 

angry birds blink

 

[Angry Birds website hacked] Turned briefly into “Spying Birds” with NSA logo attached to Angry Bird’s head. Done so in retribution for reports the NSA is using the popular game (as well as other apps) as spying tools with their blessing. Rovio says it is innocent, says it’s the third party ad networks being owned or compromised by the NSA and other government intelligence agencies. Suggests no device is safe that receives tailored advertising from ad networks. Not using Firefox and Ad Blocking software yet? Link 

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advert-dennis-ward8.16.13
Bitcoin isn’t really a ‘coin’ as much as a distributed, public balance ledger with every balance and transaction recorded.

crazy bunny slippers

 

I’m not crazy. My reality is just different than yours. 

[“Vegetarian ‘Ham’”] Textured soy protein, water, vegetable oil, whey protein, sugar, wheat flour, salt, vegetarian seasonings, permitted food coloring. Contains soybeans, gluten and dairy. May contain traces of nuts and seeds. Since it contains a animal product (dairy) it’s not considered vegan, only vegetarian. Ham has a number of definitions, and its meaning has evolved over time. Ham by itself specifically means the cut of pork deriving from the hind legs of swine. But if used with a adjective like Turkey or Vegetarian, means a formed product containing such which may or may not contain meat from a animal.

Remember, Google and Wikipedia search are your friends. So are vegans and vegetarians who by necessity tend to make some really awesome tasting and very nutritious meals, salads, juices and fruit smoothies. As carnivores it’s healthy to go vegetarian once in awhile. But be nice as many veggies detest the harming or using of animals in any fashion. Tip well as their food usually requires considerable more preparation due to the numerous ingredients involved. 

Radio-Shack-1.2.14
Speaking of homeless, let’s not forget to mention all those hanging out in front of the old Silverado in Marathon. The group is getting bigger and bigger. Perhaps they could pick up the beer cans that they drop all around. Yeah right, like they care about recycling.

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[“FTR’S fan club”] Hardly. When one lone poster answers one of the numerous critiques of F.T.R. the poster is accused of getting their panties in a knot. That leaves this reader with the feeling that this accuser has a gap in his thinking chain.

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coconuts-ad-11.13
Join us this evening at Bistro31 for a wonderful winter Business Social. They’re serving up beer & wine plus great snacks. Prizes for business card drawings and a 50/50 will add to the fun. This is a great networking tool, so come in out of the cold between 5:30 – 7 this evening! FREE to LKCC members; $10 for guests.
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q_quail

[Are you a good liar or not?] A simple test may prove it. Using the first finger of the hand you write with, draw a capital Q on your forehead. If the tail of the Q you drew is on the left side of your forehead (so it could be read by someone facing you), then you are aware of how other people perceive you and you are good at lying. If not, then perhaps you need a bit more practice. Link 

A hearing for the Rockland Key driveway begins at 9 a.m. tomorrow County staff denied an after-the-fact permit, saying the driveway on Rockland Key’s Calle Uno is 38 feet wide. County code limits residential driveways to a 24-foot width. An attorney for the property owner says in a letter that the paved area includes two separate driveways.

Leave it to a lawyer to try and spin a blatant code violation into a community benefit!

springers-ad12.30.12
Backyard gun ranges and sewers make for a long County Commission agenda. Link

soylent liquid

[Soylent gets FDA approval] Soylent started out as a crowd sourced funding project, has generated so much interest and is about to become a shipping product, even receiving a FDA nutrition label. Soylent contains no real people like the movie Soylent Green portrays. May make a great survivalist/stranded sailor food source or for people on very thin budgets. Link

[“Minimum wage increase”] Any businessman that uses an accountant that charges minimum wage, or pays his staff that, won’t be in business long anyway.
johnsons-ad-7.25.13

Lower Keys Property Owners Association Covered Dish and Members’ Meeting, Monday, February 3. Join us and bring one of your favorite dishes to share. 2014 membership dues are due if you have not already paid. Please try to remember to bring something to our food bank.  Thank you!

Checkout our website at … Events

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dollar sign carry

[“Minimum wage increase”] Increasing the minimum wage will certainly be passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices for goods and services as it trickles up the pay scale. Inflation does hurt those on fixed incomes, however a 2-3 percent annual inflation is healthy and necessary and should have been planned in one’s retirement calculations. If one has been closely watching the global financial and economic news over the last several years or decades, they would know that this was a necessary eventuality. Wage increases are the latest shoe to drop in a huge chain of events extending all the way back to when the US gave China favored nation trade status, like Japan was previously. Capitalism survives by growing into new markets, it’s the only viable economic system the world has that provides a ton of benefits with new products and methods. 

Google is selling Motorola. It appears their plan to make a smartphone is not going as planned.

advert-accurate-home-insp8.14.13
[“Minimum wage”] That was a good analysis posted yesterday. I don’t understand how folks think mandating salary outweighs market supply and demand. The prices will go up to cover this wage increase (inflation rises), and less employees will be hired (unemployment increases), and more jobs that can be shipped to other countries will be shifted (American workers are now less competitive). I just don’t see the good this well-intentioned minimum wage increase will achieve. Anyone that thinks a corporation is going to cut profits to pay for higher labor costs doesn’t understand free market or competition nor the concept of stockholders.

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[Deception] How can McDonalds and the other fast food chains legally advertise a beautiful burger or burrito and then serve you a flattened piece of crap that in no way resembles what was advertised? 

Never tell your problems to anyone. Most don’t care and the others are glad you have them.
chamber-ad10.17.13
On January 30, 1649 King Charles I of England was beheaded. In 1933 Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany and in 1948 Gandhi was assassinated.
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pipe30[Sewer Line] Maybe you have seen the monster boring machine at Niles Channel. It will bore a tunnel under the seafloor, then drag an 18″ HDPE plastic pipe back through it that is intended to contain raw sewage from one side of the channel to the other on its way to the treatment plant. This is untreated human waste mixed with all manner of germs, viruses, pharmaceuticals, cleaning chemicals, and more. The pipe (forcemain) is not being encased in a casing or carrier sleeve pipe because the consultant said it would not be a good idea. He said the casing pipe on other projects wore through due to rubbing from the sewage forcemain pipe inside, so why bother?

Well what wears through when the sewer forcemain is rubbing on rocks instead of a smooth plastic pipe? Being of lower specific gravity than salt water, the raw sewage will make its way upward into the ocean. If it had sprung a leak inside the casing, the pump pressure would force the sewage to the ends of the casing instead of into the environment. This way, nobody will know there is a leak and ignorant officials will wonder why they have to keep the beaches closed, just like in Key West. We have bad designers on this sewer system. We need to find a way to pull the plug. Septic tanks are not nearly so bad as this potential disaster. 

nira tocco realtor 9.12
 My degree of sarcasm depends on your degree of stupidity.

pulled-pork-sandwich

Hi there from Springers Bar and Grill. It’s sandwich Thursday, and do we have a treat for you. Today’s special is a pulled pork sandwich with BBQ sauce. It’s one of our favorites and sure to be one of yours.

Did you know Superbowl Sunday is the most popular winter grilling day of the year. 62% of grill owners will be bundling up and possibly digging a path through the snow to fire up the grill on Sunday. No need for that parka around here but why go through the trouble of heating up the coals when you can join us for good food, great friends, and a day full of laughs. Doors open at 11am, Pig Roast at 2pm and the game starts at 6:30.

Meanwhile back in my home state of South Carolina: Greenwood police said a woman was stabbed in the neck by a co-worker during an argument about an assault involving a hog stomach at a local pork processing plant. According to the police report, the two women were in the “kill room” where hogs are slaughtered at the Carolina Pride plant on Packer Avenue when they began arguing Monday about noon. The suspect, identified as 19-year-old Johnnette Brown, claimed the victim had hit her with a hog stomach, according to the report. The victim denied this and the two women began arguing, police said.

As they argued, police said Brown gripped a pair of scissors like an ice pick and stabbed the victim in the neck. The victim tried to hit Brown to fend her off and other employees were able to pull Brown away, according to the report. Police said a witness confirmed the victim’s story with officers, saying there were no hog stomachs on the table in question and when the victim told this to Brown, she still accused her of the assault and then she was stabbed.

isaksen-flood-roof 4.23.13 
[“Minimum wage increase”] Any businessman that uses an accountant that charges minimum wage, or pays his staff that, won’t be in business long anyway.

super psylockefix

 

Having a vagina does not stop me from believing that my balls are bigger than yours!

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[“Minimum wage”] Yesterday’s explanation was right on, but what are we supposed to do? repress the repressed? do away with minimum wages altogether? 
fanci-11-2-13
[Million American Jobs Project] Buy American. The best 3 minutes you will ever spend for yourself and the future of our economy. Really excellent.  I hope many people see this short video.
pump-ct30[Captain Doom and Gloom] There is a scare going around that California might run out of fresh water. How stupid are people getting not to see it has to be another scam? The planet is seven tenths water and we have the industrial power to turn all that into something drinkable, so why are we faced with shortages? Florida also gets this man made crisis. Why, because of the profiteers and other industries who make billions off the heads of idiots who believe in bottled wawa for dollars a drop. It is water? If this so called shortage happened in northern Canada the people would be heard laughing all the way to the Panama Canal. No, the only fresh water shortage is man made and those that perpetrate such disasters should be dealt with harshly. Build the desalination plants and free this planet from those greedy connivers and grow the food we all need.
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from the right

“After four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better,” Obama said. “But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled.” That is a quote from Mr. Obama’s State of the Union Address.  I agree with him, he is exactly right, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer during Democrat governance. Deer Friends, Mr. Obama was/is the Chief Executive of our nation. The sad state of our national affairs are entirely his doing.  He has failed to deliver on virtually every promise that he made, and nearly every initiative that he has championed has failed.

the finger smObama whined about his ever deteriorating relationship with Congress, but rather than attempt to mend fences and to seek compromise, he gave the Constitution and the Republicans the single digit salute and promised to impose his  will through a series of executive orders instead of championing legislation and seeking compromise to accomplish the same end. That attitude is supremely arrogant.

He make a huge fuss about issuing an executive order requiring that employees of contractors who do business with the federal government pay a new minimum wage of $10.10 per hour. Does that sound impressive to you?

If it does you are being gulled again. The new executive order affects only future contracts, not existing ones, and would only apply to contract renewals if other terms of the agreement changed.  The fact is that this affects not one current contract, it only affects future contracts with the federal government. It is nearly a certainty that the order will impact only about 500k workers. That’s a tiny fraction of our work force. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 155,000,000 persons in our work force.

Deer Friends, The Democrats and Obama own the mess that is our economy lock stock and barrel.  The Democrats have effectively controlled Congress since 2007.

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