Categories
2019 December

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Letters to the editor with pictures since 2002. Published on Big Pine Key’s garbage days, Tuesdays and Fridays.

[Afghanistan] Let’s invade a country where we know nothing about, or anything about the people, their culture, their history, their language, geography, climate, food, nothing. And let’s occupy that country against the people’s will — over there or here at home. After our initial mission is completed let’s stay there for 18 years and give up a few of our own every few days during those 18 years, just for the hell of it. Their deaths won’t change a thing. Has their deaths stopped terrorism? No. As a matter of fact terrorism has metastasized and spread world-wide.

Militarily, there is no reason for us to be there. We should withdraw all our troops and fight them with spies and drones. Those strategies seem to work, both have been proven to work. What good is an army without an enemy to attack—a target! Find me an army of terrorist and we’ll flatten ‘em, but where are they? The only troops that should be in Afghanistan are multi-national troops (if we can find countries who care enough to send troops). Why waste America’s treasure for another 18 years fighting a 21st century war with Second World War tactics? Use our spies, drones and bombs not American bodies languishing in an 18-year war accomplishing nothing but spreading hate.

[“Habit For Humanity homes”] The so called “fire traps” that writer referred to are actually modular homes. Unlike mobile homes and RVs, the houses are built to the same rigid construction standards as an onsite wooden house would be. The reason modular homes are so popular is because they are largely assembled off-site in a construction factory. The lower cost of factory labor, and the higher degree of manufacturing control, enables the building to withstand wind speeds up to 180mph, at the lowest price possible. This type of quality control, and labor cost savings, cannot be matched by on-site construction.

 

 

[Santa’s Coming] Please join us for our Santa in the Park party on Saturday, December 14th at 6:00 pm. We will have hot dogs, snacks and beverages. Santa will arrive around 7:00 pm.

[Shallow Injection Wells] I have been saying that shallow injection wells are a bad idea since 1999. Forcing fresh water under salt water instead of floating it on top where plants can tap into it is wrong. I have also thought it to be a bad idea to score the Keys island rock with criss-crossed trenches (canals), too. Think about standing on a big boulder in the ocean and slicing it up beneath your feet. What good can come of that?
“The law of unintended consequences” is something that should be a required education course and well understood by anyone making big decisions. A history of the Army Corps of Engineers could be the textbook, with classic examples like the cross-Florida barge canal or Everglades management. A history of FKAA might be another good text, full of really bad engineering decisions.
[Robo Calls] Is it possible to sue AT&T for allowing all the unwanted phone ads I get all day long? If not, why not? Why don’t they have an incoming call list I can edit for those I want?

[Free Concert Tonight] Tonight, Tuesday December 10th, free concert at the Big Pine Methodist Church on Key Deer Blvd.  This is the annual Christmas Cantata performed by the Lower Keys  Community Choir and Keys Chamber Orchestra.  This year’s selection is Shout the Good News.  Show starts at 7:30 p.m., all are welcome.
[Clark Griswold Quote] Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere, leave you for dead? ~National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

 

 

 

 

[Holiday Kindness] Make up for lost time and do two kindnesses on some days!

[“Sea level rise”] To the poster that thinks water levels will rise by 1 ft if all the glaciers melt, I have some news, Antarctic melt alone will raise levels 200 ft! The flaw in that logic is that it is two dimensional, not taking height into consideration (the United States has the lowest math and science scores in the world and it shows).
[“Sea level rise”] Glaciers melting and warming of the sea will significantly increase the sea level at an increasing rate. The earth is a big greenhouse and the house is warming up fast (historically speaking). Greenhouse gases have kept Earth’s climate habitable for humans and millions of other species. But those gases are now out of balance and threaten to change drastically which living things can survive on this planet—and where.
Carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas that drives global climate change, continues to rise every month. Eighteen of the 19 warmest years all have occurred since 2001. A CT poster asks, “How did people become gullible?” Science, instead of your politically-based opinion. Again, it’s the extreme rate of increase in global temperatures that’s significant. You may not be here to be proven wrong but the next few generations will see its fury with their own eyes. I’ll believe science, you can believe politics.

 

 

 

[Deer Disease] Do the people at Save Our Key Deer know if this deer has the bloody deer disease? or is the bloody head from fighting other young bucks?

[Mourning the Past] Back when we came home from school we had chores, then homework. Dinner was held with family around the table and for many of us from Florida, church was on Sunday. Back in the day, the teachers ruled the school and the principal beat your butt.
Then somehow, the schools got liberalized. No more paddles meant no more respect. More single parent homes meant kids telling the teachers what they can and can’t do. The loss of routine, the acceptance of the crap being taught, and the advent of the electronic babysitters (devices) has bred multiple DF[?] generations who now are adult-whiners who would rather let someone else handle everything in their lives – from home owners associations to government. Sadly, the rough hands of fishermen, tradesmen and the like has given way to soft handed who seek to game the system and believe what others tell them rather than educate themselves on truth.

 

 

 

[A Scary Christmas Carol] December 19 on FX. 7:30 pm EST. An original take on an iconic ghost story.

[Correction] “General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp awarded a $22,209,893,409 to build subs. I think that’s 24 trillion!”
Nope, it’s 24 billion (likely the product of a Keys education).
Honda recalls portable generators due to fire and burn hazards. Link

 

 

 

Hurricane Irma landfall devastates lower Florida Keys 9/10/2017. Come to the Keys, have fun in the sun! Video

[Cancer & Booze] Light drinking may increase cancer risk by nearly 20 percent. It’s the end of the world as we know it! Link

 

 

 

 

[Lost In The Wilderness] When I park in a large parking garage I take a picture of where I parked.

[“Sea level rise”] The water levels are not rising; the Keys are sinking! Due to all the fatsos who’ve moved down.

[Bird Count] Join us for the 120th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Meet fellow nature enthusiasts and help identify birds while walking the National Key Deer Refuge trails and other natural areas in the Lower Keys.  We’ll visit every habitat from beach berms to mangroves, wetlands to hardwood hammocks throughout the morning.  Bring binoculars, water, snacks, and water shoes for a day of fun!  Everyone welcome, beginners encouraged! Binoculars available. Saturday, December 21, 2019 7:00 am to noon. Email Park Ranger Kristie_Killam@fws.gov to sign up.

[Election Meddling]  Marathon City Council member and a Marathon city clerk have been arrested for stealing a campaign sign. petty, petty, petty. What’s next? An attempted hit? Oh, sorry that’s already been tried in Marathon — the Petri dish of the Florida Keys. (and to think the political scum of today talk bad of the smugglers of yesteryear). Thank goodness for crooked cops and assistant State attorneys to keep the pressure off. Roman, can I borrow an I-Pad?
[“Sea level rise”] I travel frequently and have had people from different parts of the country ask me how can I live in the Keys with the roads flooded all the time and hurricanes snapping trees off? How about if we start a media hype campaign that shows that there are packs of werewolf groupers in the Keys and they only eat northerners because of their thicker blood. And it is caused by climate change. At least that would actually help the Keys by reducing the northern visitors. To add gravitas to this scenario, maybe we can get Greta Thunberg to read this on TV standing in a puddle in Key West and scowling appropriately.
[Stormy Coast] Storm batters Lake Erie shoreline in southwest Ontario. Video
[Night Sky] Are we losing the night sky? How we see the night sky is in danger from a new form of light pollution — lots and lots of satellites! While they’re vital for our GPS and mobile internet, it could hinder our study of the universe. (Note: you have to register and install a player. boo) Audio
[Kayak For Sale] Slightly used and not abused, Hobie Tandem Mirage Oasis Direct Drive Kayak for sale, Little Torch Key, Oceanside. Includes the Hobie plug-in wheels. Sand/taupe color. $4,300 new, but $2,000 firm, for quick sale. ~Johanna@pa.net
[Idiots] No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot. ~Mark Twain. The problem is that he never said this, but it just sounds like something he would.
[Old 7 Mile Bridge] Has anyone ever seen a slower moving project than the rehab of the old 7 Mile Bridge?  In spite of the fact that there are more than ten cars parked every day at the end of the bridge, I’ve never seen more than four people actually working at any one time no matter what time of the workday I drive past.
Please enjoy our Port Pine Heights Newsletter, which includes our Calendar of Events. Full Menu > Ongoing Events
[“Affordable housing fire traps”] Not true. All new construction meets the requirements of the Southern Building Code. Where do you folks come up with this stuff?

[7 Mile Bridge Tree] Driving over the 7 mile bridge the last few days, you could see the mystery Christmas tree decorators working on the Australian pine that grows out of the old bridge. What a project getting decorations, ladder, and power supply up that bridge. I wish I could have taken a picture, but that’s real hard at 65 mph.

[Bad Cop] Top cop told her deputy to act like a ‘white supremacist cop.’ It was caught on video.
One human family, my butt. Time to send the racist “Tackleberry” Phelps to pasture. And to think they bitched about the days when drug dealers dropped off Burger King bags full of cash at Key West’s city hall.