Categories
2014 August

Sunday, August 10, 2014

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The-Coconut-Telegraph-w-CoconutsThe Original Unsocial Media. Anonymous Letters to the Editor with Pictures. Published Daily by Noon Since 2002. No Saturday Edition

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(Ed: Notice to our advertisers and faithful readers and contributors. After the November elections I will no longer publish the Coconut Telegraph on Sundays. After twelve years of publishing [ten of those years I published seven days a week] I need a solid two days off from the responsibility. I’ve tried to find someone to publish on Sundays, but have had no luck.)
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mohammed-kill[A Cure For Muslim-ism] Many, many moons ago the American Indian was afraid of having his photograph taken because he feared the photo would capture his soul. This fear came from ignorance and superstition. Eventually as more and more photos of Indians were taken they soon lost that fear and realized that a picture was just a picture. I think the same can happen with Muslims.The more pictures of Mohammed that are drawn, the more cartoons of Mohammed that are rendered will eventually lead the ignorant and superstitious Muslim to realize that nothing bad will happen no matter how many pictures of Mohammed there are (There are no depictions of Mohammed in the Muslim world). A statue of Mohammed would really be great. This is a peaceful way to desensitize them of their superstition about images, a first step in dragging the Muslim mind into the twenty-first century towards peaceful coexistence with the rest of us. Send in your Mohammed cartoons, hopefully Ed will publish them. Now, if we could only get some pictures published in the Mideast that would make a great difference. Is there an Arabic version of the fearless Coconut Telegraph?
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[Gun nut] I gave up my gun. Too many problems carrying it. I now carry a thirty two inch sword. Swords are legal to carry in all but three States. Try it you’ll like it. It make a good cane too!
If you took all the junk foods and other junk stuff out of a super market, you’d have a old Mom and Pop Grocery store left!
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[Legal Quandary] If somebody builds a non-conforming structure in a conservative area and sales of other properties in that area fall greatly, is the owner of the non-conforming structure liable for property value loses if potential buyers make official statements that the non-conforming structure is why they will not buy in that area?
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[“Name that bird”] Red-breasted mattress thresher. Rarely seen in the Keys.
Someone who works for radio (which is all but dead since computer broadcast and satellite radio) tells someone else to get a real job. That was a Friday joke I hope? God knows Keys radio especially the newer stations are a joke.
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Summer tan 2014
I don’t know much about the candidates running for office down here, but I am confused by the one CT ad that shows a photo of a doctor and nurse attending to a patient. The ad couples this picture with an insurance ad. I am confused- Is he a doctor who can help with your flood insurance? (Ed: I complained about it Friday to the artist and changed it today. According to the ad agency who designed the ad, it was supposed to show compassion.)
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How to use your cat to hack your neighbor’s wi-fi. Link
nas[Night Flights at NAS Key West] Naval Air Station Key West is hosting a Marine Hornet squadron that will require training at night Aug. 11-14 and Aug. 18-19 at NAS’ Boca Chica Field. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, will train in NAS’ air ranges before returning to Boca Chica Field at approximately 10 p.m. “While our normal operating hours are 7 a.m. – 10 p.m., we don’t often fly after dark,” said NAS Key West Commanding Officer Capt. Steve McAlearney. “I want our surrounding communities to be aware of the later flights so they are not surprised.” NAS Key West maintains a hotline for noise concerns from residents. The number is (305) 293-2166. For more information about NAS Key West, contact the Public Affairs Office at (305) 293-2027.
[Unusual Guest] What should one do if there’s an elephant in your pool? Video
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You have shown the dog butt Jesus picture enough already. Surely you can find something a little more upgrading to show with all the beauty that God has given us in the Keys
[Bad Home Loans] Just how stupid do you think the American people are? Link
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[“National Association of Atheist Doctors”] They are there. Their actual name is Doctors Without Borders and they help throughout the world in the worst places. You don’t have to believe in a god to do good and help others
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[“Name that bird”] It’s hard to tell from just that one picture. If it had 2 wing bars, I’d guess Blue-winged Warbler. If no wing bars, then Prothonotary Warbler would be my guess.
Thank you very much for posting an ad in your classified section recently. We found our Land Rover’s keys! Please remove the ad and save the ink. We sincerely appreciate everything you and your website does. Thank you!
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New butane lighters.
$.50 each or $.40 each when purchasing 10 or more. Call 305 897 4644, leave message and I will call you back. Classified Ads > Miscellaneous
[Independents and Term Limits] If you want to take your country back, and in November, when you’re at the voting booth, voting for Congress, and you don’t vote Independent, and instead vote Republican or Democrat, it will be your fault that the crap, exploitation and abuse we are suffering as Americans today, by both Republican & Democrats in Congress will continue and never get better. Heed my advice. Let’s vote both parties out for this one time to show them that we are sick and tired of the bullshit. We need to replace them all with Independents and demand 2 year term limits from now on, with a minimum wage salary. And we should refuse to allow anymore corporations to lobby politicians, no matter what the Supreme Court has ruled. This is the only way to take our country back and be a true patriot without firing a single shot!
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[Iguanas] They eat my fruit and flowers and poop all over the place!  Take a drive from Big Pine to Big Coppitt on a sunny day with a passenger to count how many iguanas are sunning themselves alongside US1 and on the new bike path.  In an area so concerned about protecting native species, why isn’t there a bounty on these invaders? Can we shoot them from our cars?
Yazidis10The Yazidis mark themselves out as different. They never wear the colour blue. They are not allowed to eat lettuce. Many of the men wear their hair in long plaits that make them resemble nothing so much as Asterix and Obelix. They believe one of their holy books, the Black Book, was stolen by the British in colonial times and is being kept somewhere in London … For ordinary Iraqis, they are bogeymen to frighten children with. But for religious extremists through the centuries, they have been Devil-worshippers to be slaughtered. The misidentification came about because the Yazidis worship a fallen angel, the Malek Tawwus, or Peacock Angel. But, unlike Lucifer, the Yazidis’ fallen angel was forgiven by God and restored to heaven. Their religion is not just an offshoot of Christianity or Islam. They do not believe in heaven or hell, but in reincarnation, which they describe as the soul “changing its clothes”. They have kept their religion alive through the Talkers, men who are taught the entire text of their missing holy book by memory as children, and who in turn pass it on to their own sons. The Yazidis once lived in a wide area, across Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia. But they have been driven from their homelands, and most have fled to Australia, Canada and Germany. Against all the odds, Iraq is the one place in the Middle East where a sizeable community remains. They have been persecuted both for their religious beliefs, and for their ethnicity. In Turkey, they faced double discrimination as both non-Muslims and Kurds, and were forced to carry identity cards that listed their religion as “XXX”. In Georgia and Armenia, they fell foul of nationalist movements after the fall of the Soviets. The Yazidis speak Kurdish – they claim theirs is the ancient Kurdish religion – but they have a troubled history with their Kurdish neighbours too. Their traditions make them highly visible as a separate community. The Yazidis do not practise arranged marriage, like other communities in the region. They have a formal system of elopement, where a man must “kidnap” his bride. If the woman is willing, the parents have to accept the match.There are darker sides to the Yazidis. They have a tradition of killing any of their members who leave the religion, and 2007 it was reported that Du’a Khalil Aswad, a Yazidi woman, was stoned to death for converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim man. The Yazidis say they have survived 72 genocides. Now there are fears the last community of them in the Middle East is facing another
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roller coaster
[Bumpy Ride] Every street, avenue, and drive in the Keys is in awful condition!  Bumps, pits, cracks,pitiful attempts at patching, and now trenches from the new wastewater system being installed.  I was told of one smooth drive in the Keys, the new asphalt on Sawyer Drive, Cudjoe Key.  Forget it.  It looks smooth and black, but it is a series of ripples.  I hope the same contractor is not awarded any more jobs in the Keys
[Keynoter Endorses George Neugent] “During his 16 years in office, Neugent has demonstrated his commitment to the Keys environment.  His contacts in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., are invaluable at a time when the Keys could use all the money we can get, whether it’s to complete the state-mandated sewer system or acquire sensitive land for preservation”… “we believe Neugent has the edge and endorse him one final time as the GOP nominee for County Commission in District 2.”
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[“Bank of America found guilty”] Bank of America did not cause the economic downturn. What happened is complicated, but it goes all the way back to when China was made favored nation trade status. It caused a sudden flooding of cheap Chinese goods to the American market which caused our economy to enter a dangerous deflationary trend. The Federal Reserve under Greenspan countered this by lowering the Prime Rate they loan money to banks, which they mark up slightly and loan the money to the public. Doing this causes the economy to accelerate and causes inflation as prices rise thus countering deflation. The Fed tries to keep inflation between 1-3% and does things to maintain this by manipulating the balance sheet and money supply.The Federal Reserve never fought deflation before, the Japanese have been trying to fight deflation with short controlled measures over time and it didn’t work. So the Fed lowered the Prime Rate hard and kept it there for quite some time to overheat the economy with cheap loans so people will use the money to make money. The Fed likely reasoned they had plenty of experience fighting inflation so they could do this. As a result the economy entered a real estate bubble and high times of the cheap money were here. With the Republicans controlling the majority of the government everything was going as planned.

What happened is the government changed hands to the Democrats, which the Congress lowered the lending standards in 2005 and got Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the sub-prime housing market which during the bubble was incredibly risky and it later backfired. One the companies that started sub-prime lending (before Freddie and Fannie got into it) was CountryWide ran by the famous Angelo Mozilo, who had contacts with high ranking members of the Democratic Party, in Congress and at Freddie and Fannie, “Friends of Angelo” they were called as they got even sweeter loans than anyone else.

Freddie and Fannie later blew up, it took TRILLIONS of dollars to bail it out, more that the small billions for GM or any bank that failed. The Federal Reserve even had to devalue the US currency 3 times with QE 1 2, and 3, why gold went from $500 a ounce to $1500 and gas shot up to near $5 a gallon. Bank of America purchased CountryWide before the bubble blew, so they were not directly responsible, rather inherited the transgressions of Angelo.

By far the biggest offenders were the Congressmen Christopher Dodd and Barney Franks, who used the taxpayers money to play in the risky sub-prime mortgage market and allowed anyone who could make the monthly rent payment to get a loan. A bartender I know who only worked one job for the last year with little savings and no credit was allowed to buy a $250,000 condo on a interest only loan backed by the government/taxpayers. This would work provided the housing prices continued to climb, but it was a bubble and prices came down. This was insane Socialism and Democratic greed, they didn’t want anyone else but the government giving home loans. She lost her job, her condo was repossessed, lost all her money invested and ruined her credit. Congressmen are immune from prosecution, so the two just didn’t run for re-election as not to draw negative attention for their misdeeds to the Democratic Party. Instead they all blamed Bush to throw public opinion off of them.

With all the trillions the government lost, they naturally had to go after whomever they can, right or wrong, to try to get money back. Using their leverage of endless court battles and their control over the money supply/banking system to do so. The banks have to play ball with the government or the government will dissolve them or force them out of the banking system. So the court battle was long and drawn because of the dollar amount the government wanted back to re-balance it’s checkbook, with BoA naturally not wanting to pay anything as it wasn’t their fault.

The real cause of the last 7 or so years of economic despair was caused primarily by all those who were allowed to take a loan and couldn’t afford it. Either they defaulted or was underwater, paying a huge monthly payment and thus had less disposable income to spend elsewhere in the economy. This of course caused others to lose their jobs and so forth. We almost went over the brink there and although after every real estate bubble there is a post real estate bubble recession, this one lasted as long as it did because of the Democrats in Congress at the time allowing too many people to get loans they couldn’t afford or were qualified. If this didn’t occur, the post real estate bubble recession would have lasted about a year. The rich would have taken a haircut but still support the economy for their basic needs and wants. It’s those who couldn’t fill their basic needs and wants that slowed the economy and in turned slowed others and so forth.

If the Republicans would have acted first and enacted tariffs on the flood of cheap Chinese goods to cushion the deflationary blow to the US economy, then this cycle wouldn’t have happened and no real estate bubble would have occurred. They likely didn’t want to anger the Chinese because they are loaning the U.S. money. We buy Chinese goods, they loan us money and this interlocking of the two economies occurs. America is one of the world’s largest market for goods, the Chinese needed to keep their people busy and provide some upward mobility/advancement. To do this thing requires the Chinese to loan us money. It’s a strange relationship. See Death By China on Netflix, this global economics game is a lot larger than just Bank of America.

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[El Toro See Saw] At some point earlier, four guys thought this was a good idea. Four dummies at the same time? Don’t try this at home, kids! Video
[“National Association of Atheist Doctors”] Why do God fans think that only religious people do good? Where does that perverse thinking come from?
lower keys boat rental7.11.14
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[Dog Butt Jesus] The image an agnostic see’s in a piece of toast.
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Key’s quiz: Which do you fear the most?
A. Shark
B. Alligator
C. Hurricane
D. Some damn fool causing a wreck on the Seven Mile Bridge, shutting it down for hours.
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People looking at a turtle hatchling at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon.
Videos of the real world and the crazies in it. My favorite is the Brushcutter versus the scythe. Videos
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[“The Arch”
] Even more important is the Keystone, without which the arch wasn’t possible.
I have been noticing more and more of these jacketed “service dogs” in places where dogs aren’t normally allowed. Is this for real, or are some people taking advantage, buying bogus jackets and taking Fido everywhere with them.
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Picture proof
in answer to your reader who said he’d vote for me except for my talking about angels nonsense. ~Sloan
[Screen Shot] To take a screen shot on an iPhone push power button on top and the round home button on bottom simultaneously. I use that feature practically every day. If I’m listening to a song on Pandora I like, I just do the above to make a screen shot so I remember the song! Ditto for a web page I browse, etc.
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Does anyone else read Tim Dorsey’s books? The guy just nails BPK and the rest of the Keys, not to mention Florida.
I guess what I have herd over the years about a popular Stock Island restaurant owner is true. One, don’t you feel dumb?. Two, look at you. Three, I ate there twice and did not care for the food. Oh well
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Wetstock 10
is 3 weeks from today. So far we have people coming from New Jersey, Wisconsin, and South Florida (Miami, Lauderdale, Naples) coming in just for the event. It’s going to be another great time so tell your friends to come out and enjoy a day of Peace and Music. It’s free and it just doesn’t get any better than that! Does anyone out there in BPK.comland have a drone that would be interested in shooting some video?
[“Best western”] The excitement and romance of the wild west was a powerful force on the imaginations of the British from the 1930s until the ’70s. Samira Ahmed reflects on the love of the Western. The American Film Institute defines western films as those “set in the American West that embody the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier”. BBC Radio
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Hunter Outdoor Original 52″ ceiling fan
. Fan features a cast iron housing, unique oil bath lubrication system and precision ground ball bearings submerged in oil bath for years of quiet operation. Comes with a white bowl light kit. Damp listed for use in covered porches, with 5 weather resistant white blades. The powerful WhisperWind motor quietly generates optimal airflow with reverse feature providing year round comfort. 3-speed pull chain. New cost over $350. Less than 1 year old. Classified Ads > Household
[Marathon Journal] Marathon’s Elections Office is now permanently located at 100th Street, Marathon, Florida. Primary Election is scheduled in August. The big election is scheduled November 4. Middle Keys election branch’s number is 305.289.6017.Primary elections eliminates candidates so that there are regular election candidates. The issues from this election is wide ranging. The candidates will discuss the issues to death. It is a necessary process. The issues, though, are about the same every year. Affordable housing and a new city hall are just a few. There are some new issues facing the voters.

Absentee voting is the best thing since old pork rinds. There are three elections offices local to your area. Monroe County Supervisor of Elections Joyce Griffin is located at the Marathon location. Early voting for the Primary and General are “County Early Voting sites will be open 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Early voting will begin Monday the 15th day before an election and end Saturday the 3rd day before an election.”

Regular elections are about getting ready to pick your choices on the ballot, absentee ballot, or early voting. You can get absentee ballots by mail, visiting the nearest elections office, and by email, to name a few. The elections are over and the best candidates won. It is hard to campaign needing money for a myriad of items like advertising, campaign cards and signs, and mail outs to your targeted groups.

Election season. The candidate list keeps growing. You can find the list at your nearest election’s office. Marathon’s elections office is on 100th Street in the county building on the left. Park in the parking lot and go in to meet some dedicated people running the place. You can pick up your absentee ballot too. Don’t forget about early voting as well. Or go to www.keyselections.org for complete information.

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The Russell Avacado
 was originated in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. It is pear shaped at its apex with a long neck giving it a total length up to 13 in. The skin is smooth, glossy, thin and leathery. The flesh is of excellent quality and the seed small. The eating season is from Aug to Sept. The tree bears well and is recommended for home gardens.
[Commissioners Pay Heed] Prohibited gifts include the following: Gifts valued at more than $100 from a lobbyist or the partner, firm, or principal of a lobbyist. Gifts valued at more than $100 from political committees or committees of continuous existence. Special district local officers and specified employees may not solicit any gift, including food or beverage, from the following: A political committee. A committee of continuous existence
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Why are so many employees leaving the FKAA [FKCC]? Maybe because they have their nest eggs for the next 100 years?
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These pipes have shown up on Meyer St on Little Torch Key. Does anyone know what’s coming next? I thought the digging was over.
The Second Amendment was written by, and for, lawyers with big bank accounts. If this world was like an old western movie we would have peace in one day. Amen
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from the right
Congratulations to those in the CT community who have been fortunate enough to grab the gold ring on lower insurance costs under Obamacare. Enjoy it while you’ve got it. The odds are that your premiums are headed up next year. Fourteen companies have filed plans to be sold on the federal marketplace for 2015 here in Florida. Three are new to the Obamacare market in Florida.Among the 11 returning companies, three are actually dropping rates between 5 percent and 12 percent and eight filed increases ranging from 11 percent to 23 percent, the state reports. The average increase will be about 13%. Link

obamacare10I suggest that those who think that Obamacare is the best thing since sliced bread read a posting in the Politics section dated July 27, 2014.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a dear old friend who is nearly my age. She is on Medicare. She has a medical condition that requires that she use certain medical appliances. She has just been notified that Medicare will no longer pay for these appliances. She has no idea how she will pay for the devises that permit her to protect her heath and provide some degree of relief from pain. Please recall that Obama robbed Medicare of $750 billion strictly to subsidize Obamacare. As a result, many Medicare recipients are experiencing huge increases in the cost of their medical care

The point is that even if your personal premiums are going down, the insurance companies are losing money and they are going to be reimbursed with your tax dollars.

Obamacare has not done a single thing to reduce the cost to deliver health care. Vaccines are not a penny cheaper, hospital rooms cost the same or more, medical appliances cost more, doctors are being forced to see more patients thereby seeing each one for a shorter time, the quality of medical care is declining, drugs have not decreased a cent in price, the cost of the hospital to operate an emergency room has not decreased by even a cent. All in all Obamacare will go down as the biggest failure of the many failures of the Obama administration.

Then of course you have to ask yourself, if Obamacare is working so well, why has Obama, without legal authority, delayed implementation of part of the employer mandate for the second straight year? And don’t forget that by executive order, the penalty for not enrolling has effectively been waived. Very nearly everyone is now exempt from joining. Grab your wallets, the cost in premiums, deductibles, and taxes is headed for the moon.

Part 2) I find it hard to believe that I actually (or nearly so) agree with Obama on his aid mission to the beleaguered people on a mountain top in Iraq. They face certain death if they stay on the mountain, and they face certain death at the cruel hands of ISIS if they come down. Obama has done the right thing by sending humanitarian aid. It remains to be seen if he will follow up and set in motion a method to actually rescue those people from the mountain top.

atom bomb1Air strikes are helpful, but not nearly enough. A safe corridor must be established and a safe destination identified. It’s growing more and more obvious that Iraq is nearly certainly doomed to ISIS. The cruelty and horror that ISIS has wreaked on anyone who is not a Muslim of their own sect, matches or surpasses that of the Nazis, the Japanese when they invaded China, and another of the Muslim fanatics sects, the Boko Haram in Africa. While the Japanese threw babies into the air and impaled them on bayonets, ISIS is beheading children and showing off buckets full of children’s heads. Link

Obama is being more than disingenuous when he claims that we will and do not have “boots on the ground” in Iraq. In fact there are hundreds of American military personnel in country, and in harms way. In June there were at least 500, and you can be certain that that number has grown exponentially in recent weeks.

The tragic thing is that none of this need to have happened. Obama gleefully and falsely took full credit for “ending” the war in Iraq. Of course, he did not, our troops were withdrawn from Iraq strictly because of a treaty signed by GWB. When that treaty was signed, it was fully expected and intended that the incoming President would negotiate an agreement that would permit leaving reasonable numbers of our military to assist and advise the Iraq military. Obama failed to do so. He did not negotiate the agreement purely for domestic political gain. It was a sop to his far left base. Further, Obama has failed to recognize the threat of the ISIS movement that is gobbling up the mid-east. ISIS and its allies are fully and totally committed to establishing a world wide caliphate. Each country that they consume greatly increases their power and their wealth. We will be paying a huge price for Obama’s vainglorious failures for years to come. Much American treasure will be spent and much American blood will be spilled. You should give careful thought to the fact that Obama has now indicated that we will be in Iraq for a long time to come. I actually agree with that. I commend the following link and suggest that you read it. Link

Obama, loath to accept responsibility for his own failures, has blamed his own intelligence community for failing to recognize the threat of ISIS.

Isn’t it comforting to know that our Commander In Chief has decided to again flit off on vacation while North Africa, Iraq, Syria, and Gaza/Israel are being consumed by ISIS. And of course we can’t forget the resurgence of the Russian bear and its assaults on our ally, Ukraine. Nor can we forget that Iran is still building its nukes, as is N. Korea. Most certainly we can’t forget the tsunami of illegals flooding across our southern border. Enjoy your vacation Mr. President. Fiddle while the world burns