[“Pay more to pay online”] Oh you are not the only outraged resident/account holder with Keys Energy! I own several homes across the country and Keys Energy is the only utility to pull that stunt. They claim that their “processing bank” requires the charge. Bullshit! Plain bullshit. Electronic funds transfer or EFT is fee free anywhere as it is an automated transfer. You want to pay by credit card well there’s those greedy credit companies that I refuse to do business with, therefore they get none of my business. I refuse to use credit cards or even hold a CC account anywhere.

But the EFT charge by KES is pure bullshit.

Lobster Season opens today! Fanci Seafood will have fresh whole lobster and tails. We also have fresh Hogfish in the case.

[Regulators] Poorly documented (or completely undocumented) press releases from various agencies, supposed independent researchers bought and paid for by agenda-driven foundations, recreational fishing columnists who are little more than industry shills, short-sighted politicians whose interests extend no farther than keeping narrowly focused pressure groups happy, and competition among user groups are all conspiring to obscure what’s really going on in the world’s oceans today.

[Sharks] Each year about 4 sharks kill humans. Each year humans kill about 40,000,000 sharks!

[Term Limits] I suggest one eight year term for Congressman, Senators and Presidents with a 6 year wait before they can run again. That’s one way to return our nation to greatness and stop its awful decline. Politicians must serve the people again not corporations and special interests.

[Cheats] There are only 50 licenses for short term rentals in the entire Florida Keys, all the rest are illegal. The illegal renters can’t be convicted even if the court is presented with advertisements for the illegal rental and signed contracts for the illegal rental because no one can prove anyone ever stayed there–the catch 22 of code enforcement.

At Coconuts this Wednesday at 7 pm it’s a fun nite. You can learn to play the Uke in a few hours at the NUT. Yes you can! Video

Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon bought the fabled Washington Post from the Graham family for $250 million out of his pocket change. He bought the influential daily as a private party and not part of the Amazon brand. Bezos is one of the richest men in the US and the world.

[Justice?] A former counselor at Marathon Middle/High School has agreed to drop her sexual harassment and retaliation complaint in exchange for $6,500 and a letter of apology. Kristen Butcher, last year accused Marathon Principal Hammon Gracy of harassing her in the workplace after d r u n k e n l y hitting on her at a Duval Street bar. Duh, that’s what bars are for. What’s wrong with hitting on a co-worker at a bar or anyone else for that matter. The hitee should have left if she didn’t like the free drinks and “hitting”. Instead she got $6,500 cash. Tight ass!

[Happy Bomb Day!] On this day in 1945, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. What a cute name for a bomb.

[IQ] Countries with the highest and lowest IQ. Now here are some interesting statistics. Link

I am a Vietnam vet. Most of us were told to go because of the draft. We should not share the blame any more then someone who pays their taxes. As a footnote, in 1969 after I got discharged I marched in Chicago with Vietnam veterans against the war.

[Sewers] This is a photo of Spanish Main Street on Cudjoe Key after the sewer construction crew has passed.

Yes Keys Energy Service is a big rip off! They told me to either mail, use the dropoff box at Ships Way or do online banking. If they really were smart they would put the drop off box at WD shopping center

[Regulators] Having been here long enough to remember & be part of the problem. I recall the late 60’s we had done so much damage to parts of the reef that I would no longer go there. That includes Looe Key. Wire fish trapping, stab netting,collecting tropicals with chemicals that damaged the reef, I could go on and on.

We need some help. Left to our own we don’t do a very good job; to be even more up front–we do a very poor job of stewardship. I know many of you don’t like to hear that kind of talk. It is the way I see it. Go to the meetings, speak your piece, join with others who have hard core facts about what your concerns are. With out management we are surely doomed.

Tonight don’t miss 50% Off Pizza Night at Springer’s Bar & Grill Starting at 5 pm – 9 pm

I looked in the bait freezer at Winn Dixie the other day and the frozen squid was sealed in fancy plastic vacuum wrapped packages.  I bought a couple hoping that the quality would be improved since it was no longer just packed in a box.  Unfortunately, it was the same mushy crap that it’s always been.

Oh well, back to the bait store.

Offshore fracking is far more common than previously known. Link 

[KW Road Non-construction] I must say that I am deeply disappointed that you are unwilling to advise us what it would take to finish the project by January 31, 2014.  This is what the people of Key West want.  

Also, it would help if you would at least advise us now of what ideas have indeed been discussed at the highest level of FDOT so we can give them careful consideration prior to the meeting.  Are you willing to do so?  Why must the ideas be a surprise?  This sounds like FDOT is playing this like some kind of courtroom drama and an ambush by surprise.

I think the businesses who are so suffering have the right to know what FDOT proposes to do so we can have an intelligent dialogue with the Secretary tomorrow afternoon.

I hope that you will summarize those ideas and send them to me this afternoon so I can discuss them at the meeting of CNRAB at 5:00 p.m. this afternoon.

It is very tempting, isn’t it?

[“Deer can jump any fence”] Dream on. I have a half acre fenced in with a 4’ poultry wire fence and in 30 years not one deer has jumped it for it’s lush salad bar of contents. Small ones have gone under it, but never over.

[Key Deer Zoo] Some good ideas and some very bad ones were put forth, to say the least, yesterday and the day before. Conservation and protection of endangered species is an important idea that depends on education. The idea of an interest center where busloads of school children can go to learn about our endangered flora and fauna is best achieved in a natural setting rather an office in the Big Pine Shopping Center or on U.S. #1. The county depressed the value of property on No Name Key, and Big Pine Key and quietly purchased more than a few residential lots on canals, and between existing homes. It was a bad, quasi legal idea. I look for them to go on the market 20 years from now.

In the interim, there is a house on a number of acres on the left as you enter No Name Key. It is situated on an inland lake only kayakers have seen. A lovely site. I believe it is for sale. Galleon Bay property (next door) to Mrs. “Environmentalist” Putney’s house can be negotiated to an advantage to the county also.

Key Deer give kids lots of pleasure, and I resist telling their parents that it is unlawful to feed the deer, or park in the middle of the road. An environmental center in the refuge is needed.

Now for some bad ideas, so bad that they shouldn’t need mentioning. For example: Whoever heard of anything more paradoxically misguided as sterilizing an endangered species? Another from the same source claiming to be an expert: Deer can jump fences (presumably of any height) to get to food.

Until 15 years ago, every fruit tree I planted was mercilessly killed by deer until I was benevolently granted a legal permit for a 4′ fence around my property. No deer has jumped my fence in all the years since, and be assured a cornucopia of loveliness would await them it they could. The deer corridor fence on US1 is more than 4′ tall, and deer are not jumping it. The wildlife folks can choose the height and color. I suggest green. A refuge is a place where you go for safety and protection from violence or from bad weather. I would add, automobiles.

Running freely through residential neighborhoods, and across streets and highways is antithetical to the term refuge. Yesterday, it was said, “A refuge is not a zoo.” A zoo is a conservatory of animals. I was never in favor of zoos until I visited the San Diego Zoo. The conservatory good works sponsored by the San Diego Zoo go far beyond providing a place for children and adults to gawk at caged animals. It is one of the most nurturing habitats for animals of all kinds any of us have seen, not to mention the research of diseases, and maternity and medical provisions on site. The San Diego Zoo is in Balboa Park, San Diego, California housing over 3,700 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies. Be amazed at what a true animal conservatory does for animals and mankind. If you have been there, you know.

Big Pine Bocce has room for one more team on Tuesday night. If anyone is interested in starting a team or joining a team, please call Mike Weaver 305-745-4646 or show up Tuesday night at the Big Pine Park at the end of Sands Road at 6pm. Link

Absolutely awe inspiring day at Ft Jefferson yesterday. Dead calm from beginning to end. That’s 10 hours of nothing but glassed-out seas 140 miles underway. 

Daddy Bones won’t let anyone play Jimmy Buffett covers, but I’m sure Ted Nugent covers are more than welcome. Yee-haw. Hyuk hyuk. (banjo twang)

[“Harmless high from pot”]  Harmless? No way Jose. Any substance that causes any change in the mental abilities of a human being is bad stuff. You get a DUI from being under the influence of booze, drugs, medication, having sex in the vehicle while driving, and anything else that makes you noy fully competent behind 4000 pounds of moving metal.

[Keys Energy bill pay plan] If you read your junk mail, you would have been informed. But since you only get your info here on BPK, your under intelligent. (I bet you don’t signal either when you drive.) I don’t like the idea either, but will change my payment plan in order to keep paying for free.

You’re right I hope FKAA doesn’t get wind of it, theirs is the easiest site to pay on.

Massive tiger shrimp invaders likely have settled in Louisiana to stay. The giant Asian shrimp that have invaded Louisiana waters, capable of growing longer than a foot and weighing a pound or more, likely are here to stay, according to federal scientists. A recent study reports that the enormous shrimp invaders will become established in the Gulf of Mexico within 10 years. That means the species is becoming a self-sustaining, breeding population and was not just a sudden boom that soon will vanish.

And, yes, the massive shellfish are edible. In fact, they are one of the most-farmed shrimp species worldwide.

[“Getting Junk mail from bigpinekey.com”] I didn’t see the forwarded emails, but I suspect they were ‘spoofed’ emails, not really from this website. One obvious clue – an http:\www… address is not an email account. Also, the spoofed emails often pull addresses from the cache of the affecting machine (ie, whatever the person was browsing) or the computer’s contact list/address book. I suggest the poster stop venting at the Editor (it’s a very long shot that this happened and only 1 person was affected) and invest some time in cleaning their computer and updating their antivirus (Panda is a good choice).

[Illegal Rental] I’d be curious to know just how many calls and emails they actually receive on this one vacation rental. Mine will be one of them I can assure you. Why are you so mad at this rental? It’s been advertised for years and as long as the home is not homesteaded, and the owner rents it for 28 days (and meets the other county rules) they’re legal.

It sounds like you’re jealous as hell. Besides, I remember when minding someone else’s business in the Keys got you a free one-way fishing trip.

If I joined the Marine Corps in Connecticut then went to Parris Island S. C. then on to Tennessee and finally on to California where I spent most of my service time, can I now order my prescription drugs through a California V A facility where medicinal marijuana is legal? Dock my back! Doobie doobie do what were the chances?

[Phony Fish] You can usually tell frozen fish because the segments of flesh are fibrous instead of almost transparent and glistening.

I read where Adolph Hitler loved dogs and small children.  You have to wonder how that could be possible.

Americans littered the moon? Disgraceful.

[There’s a sucker born every minute] Mega-church bishop Ira V. Hilliard told his Sugarland, Texas, congregation (New Light Christian Center) in June that one of his two private aircraft — a helicopter valued at about $1 million — needs new blades, but rather than pay it himself, he asked parishioners to each find it in their hearts to send him $52 “favor seeds” for the blades. (His ministry also owns a $2 million Hawker jet and a $3 million hangar.) To sweeten the deal, he virtually promised that a donor’s gift would be met by a “breakthrough favor” from God in the form of a car repair or their very own “dream” car either 52 days or 52 weeks later. Honest to God!

Tonight’s child’s nightmare brought to you by Mickey and Minnie Mouse costumes a la 1930’s.

[“Pay more to pay online”] I called Keys Energy to inquire and complain about that $3.85 fee on my online payment.  The lady who answered there made it sound like I was the only one who whined about it.  The First State Bank branch on Big Pine will take your payment for free, so far, but online is much easier and should be a free service for it’s customers. When did they take the “Service” out of Keys Energy Service?

[Blackened Talapia] I’ve seen a TV commercial for a Miami restaurant advertising blackened Talapia as one item on their menu.

[Disaster Relief] The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that federal disaster aid has been made available to the State of Florida to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area affected by severe storms and flooding during the period of July 2-7, 2013. Link

I guess the sewer thing is over, huh? Else the three days of no feedback on the subject has nulled the over-beered brains of us locals and we do not give a poop about what happens. So it costs twice as much to process the over priced food we eat, who cares, right?

[Captain Doom and Gloom] Has anyone else noticed that when the stock value of a commodity goes down, all of a sudden that commodity is healthy and good for you?  Milk, Breads, Cookies, Sugars, Eggs, Beef, and all the other foods we eat, seem to change their health values with the profit margin graph.

“Censoring” With world wide censoring of email, web and ISP sites starting to cull everybody’s web freedoms, it is imperative you reset your email and browser settings to get all you can from the sources you are paying for. Make sure your settings are open for everything you want and closed for those items you do not want.  With the “Personalized” web sites controlling what you read and can do online now controlling your precious screen, you have less choices by far, than your had a few years ago. What is next, time limits online?

Yet another of Obama‘s terrorist-killing drone strikes just happened in Yemen (that’s in the Middle East, for you Tea Party members).  He sure does make us look weak–not!

[Spying on US] Why have Americans not taken to the streets over the blatant and unconstitutional spying on American (and citizens) of the world. Have we become so lame that we’ll accept and allow this to go on. Everyone from LEO and local government officials take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution yet none have stood up against the illegal searches of email and phone calls.

Time to start sorting friends, and eliminate those who hold jobs requiring the oath, who then fail to protect my rights. This isn’t  the Hope & Change Americans voted for.

[Closing the US Embassies] Mind games or for real? Look how paranoid the public is getting with the web being scrutinized by the N S A and other departments, email wise and blog wise. If you say to the sheep, “The wolf is over the hill.” they will shake their wool off and panic. A simple suggestion of which way to run will drive them over the cliff. Sheeple know no truths today, but only see what the media or the media’s controllers broadcast. Set them up with a few weeks of horror movies, battle movies, Raghead BS, and go BOO! There is no need for bombs and bullets, just scare tactics.

Now if this BS is for real, then take them out before they act. Where’s Teddy Roosevelt when we need a president with guts. 

[Manning isn’t a hero] I wonder why AQ is now ‘kicking our butt’ Maybe because they now know our intelligence strategy?

[You Can Count On FOX] Fox News says the embassy shut down is just another example of Obama’s weakness as seen by our enemies.   

What really makes us look weak are things like the recent reality TV show that showed a bunch of our soldiers in a little fort along side a paved highway in Afghanistan.   Some guys were shooting at them from some trees across the road.  They sat there in that fort all day firing thousands and thousands of bullets into those woods and calling in air strikes on them.  I guess it never occurred to our troops to send someone out the back door to sneak around behind them.   It seems like the main objective of our military today is to make sure nobody gets hurt.   That’s not how we won WW2.

[“Corporations and profits have killed the seas, not the fisherman who made a living from the seas.”] Don’t tell that to the Republicans. How about that 1.5 billion dollar Duke Energy boondoggle the state house just screwed us with. “Corporations are people” and have more rights than you the human do.

[Race] “Trayvon Martin’s mother is missing an opportunity to lead a social movement. America needs a conversation about the unfortunate plight of thousands of young black men who have adopted unhealthy lifestyles.

“High unemployment, black-on-black crime, and hopelessness are factors that must be addressed. Individual choices and wrong internalized messages have led to the devaluation of human life in the black community at every stage of development.

“The devaluation in human life is reflected in our abortion rates and the willingness to accept high black-on-black murder rates. We can do better!

Deer Friends sometimes postings are so inane that they defy description. Once such posting was yesterday from a critic who slammed me for posting about the closure of 22 embassies throughout Arabic countries.  First of all the purpose, theme, and message of my posting is that it is tragic that AQI and its clones have resurrected themselves in the last 4 ½ years to become an even bigger world player than they were in 2009.  In the last 4 ½ years they have grown in strength and stature. Their ranks are swelling.  They have grown to the point that they can force the mightiest nation on this planet to shut down shop. That is a shame, a damn shame. In the last 4 ½ years we have seen multiple terrorist assaults on our own soil. That is unlike the 8 years immediately post 9/11.

Mr. Obama has presented himself to our enemies as being a weak willed wimp who is sympathetic to the Islamic cause. Don’t even bother to mention UBL.  Once the intell concerning UBL was in place, Obama had absolutely no choice but to take a shot at nailing UBL. He and his did a good job on that, and on that alone. Now the Muslim Brotherhood is running amok in Arabic lands and is spreading like cancer into northern Africa. Do you have any idea what Team Obama is doing to deter the Muslim Brotherhood? Neither do I.

Yesterday’s poster is either entirely clueless, daft or a freaking liar. S/he actually wrote: “the Ambassador refused the offered help by the Obama admin and FTR criticized Obama for not forcing the extra security on Benghazi.”   That is an insanely incredible statement, it beggars belief that anyone could write it. It is a total and complete untruth.

The absolute truth is that Ambassador Stevens had begged repeatedly for additional security for weeks prior to the AQI assault. He even begged for additional security on the day he was murdered. Team Obama refused help for strictly political reasons. That is inexcusable!

Team Obama is so petrified of the entire truth being told that they are doing all in their power to obstruct meaningful investigation into the totality of their failure to keep our Americans safe.  The investigation will go on, and the truth will out. There is absolutely no doubt about that. If you have any doubt about my statements, there are numerous web sources.  I suggest you start with the search term: “Ambassador Stevens asked for more security.”

Perhaps being entirely clueless and or daft, with little to no respect for the truth is essential if one is to be an Obama supporter.

I think I forgot to mention that the embassies and consulates will be shut down for the rest of week. Team Obama, and their supporters should hang their collective heads in shame.