Since 2002. Published Tuesdays and Fridays
Letters to the Editor with pictures
We were watching three pods of dolphins, the most any of us had ever seen, and this little dog got so excited he was shaking. Then the damned dog jumped in the water trying to do what? We’ll never know. |
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| If you drink like a fish, swim, don’t drive! |
[Lost Keys] Has anyone out there in the keys found a set of Infiniti car keys? If so, please contact me at 941-592-5373 ask for Lin. Thanks! |
| [Bubba System] It’s 4:45 p.m. in New Town, Key West. A silver Honda has just crashed into the car of two rangers from Dry Tortugas National Park. The Honda driver, reeking of alcohol, is stumbling away from the scene toward Duck Avenue. He is Robert Bethel, the 34-year-old son of Harry Bethel, a former City Commissioner.
During the next hour police officers responding to the scene will patiently deal with Robert, as if he’s a political time bomb. Over the past three years none of the multiple car crashes he’s been involved in have resulted in prosecution. His father you see, had a lot to do with getting Catherine Vogel, the State Attorney, elected. Our investigation reveals the frustration of some police officers with local politics. On that afternoon, October 18, 2016, the first on scene was officer Kouri. He found Mike Wydysh and Brandan Crabill slightly injured, their car ‘totaled’ and Robert Bethel… gone. Paramedics, also responding to the scene, would catch up with Robert a couple of blocks away. And that’s when the [not so funny] comedy began. And every actor on that stage had delivered the same lines many time before. This is a potentially tragic story in the making. The police are obviously frustrated. They are doing their job, yet the legal system fails to prosecute. The public should be angry and scared that this man remains on the streets to possibly kill someone – a fellow driver, a pedestrian, or even a child walking home from school – wasn’t this last occurrence near a school? |
[Holiday Depression] In research from Denmark, it was discovered that diagnoses of and hospitalizations for depression between 1995 and 2012 were 8 percent higher in November than would be statistically predicted, and it was suspected to be due to the clock change and shorter daylight awake hours. (But it might be the big commercial push into Christmas season? |
| [“Jet Skis”] I don’t know why you people think that PWCs cannot be on the Gulf side of the Keys. The only places they are restricted from are protected areas, wildlife preserves etc. Many PWCs dock their craft on the Gulf side because that’s where they live. There are legitimate backwater PWC tours in the Big Pine area, not to mention the tours in Key West that circle the entire island.
On KW you have to enter the Gulf to do that. FWS people encourage you not to go back there but that advice is normally for visitors that are not cognizant of the protected areas. |
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| The new boat ramp on SR4 on Little Torch Key, that was a month overdue in opening, has a big crack going across the whole ramp. The old ramp was better. This new ramp has a different angle and now I have to back too far into the salt water to launch. |
[Toilet Paper Conspiracy] The new toilet paper roll is one quarter inch shorter than usual, but the price is the same. They found another way to screw us. Beware of getting shorted when buying that new roll to keep your bum nice and shiny. (Pictured new roll in front) |
| [Sloan] The Citizen and other media outlets mistakenly credited all of the votes for “Write in candidate” in the mayoral race to Sloan Bashinsky. Griffin clarified the breakdown of the votes on Friday, stating that of the 1,160 votes cast as “write in,” Bashinsky received 106 votes. “Other write in votes went to, for example, The Big Mac and Mickey Mouse,” said Griffin. Cates’ total remained unchanged, with 88.6 percent of the vote in his favor. |
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[The FTR Zika Files] The other day “Never Again”, probably the loudest anti-GMM voice on Facebook,  served up yet another lie pie. It was a noxious dish chock full of falsehoods and seasoned with mendacity. Never Again has no respect for your intelligence. They believe you to be sufficiently inane to not check them for truth. They claimed that Oxitec was running a secret lab on the public dollar at the Marathon Mosquito Control facility.
The plain and simple, and very public fact, is that Oxitec has had a lab in place at the FKMCA Marathon facility for a long long time. The lab is in an unused storage area. That lab is not currently fully operational. It is not now, nor has it ever been a secret. The fact is that the lab has been, to date, used only to rear a very limited number of mosquitoes in order to ensure that the lab is ready to go when the approval to proceed is granted. Never Again is attempting to convince the unwary that that some sort of skulduggery is afoot. There is none, zero, none. The public record proves it. The fact is that permission was granted to Oxitec only after a series of very public board meetings. The record of those meetings is available for all to review. I believe that the permission was granted by unanimous vote of the board. You can be rock solid certain that Never Again was present at each and every one of those meetings. You can be sure that Never Again has been well aware of the lab since it was in the planning stage. I suggest that you think about the rock solid fact that the voice of Never Again chooses to be anonymous. Why? is it an artifice to be a shield from censure? Everyone who reads this knows my identity. I hope that you will also wonder why Never Again and the other Anti GMO FaceBook groups ban any comment or questions that do not hew to their party line? Personally I believe it is because they are afraid to expose their followers to truth.
The day after the election, Barry Wray, the face and very long winded voice of the Anti’s appeared on a local radio show. When interviewed he claimed that his Anti group, the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition, had not supported any FKMCB commission candidate. Wray shuns the truth. You can check it out for yourself in the web site of the Monroe Supervisor of elections. The truth is that his coalition, the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition actually gave $10K to a PAC. That PAC was/is Citizens for Safe Science. “Citizens” treasurer is Megan Hull, a very vocal Anti and associate of Wray. “Citizens” made no political donations except to candidates for the mosquito control board. “Citizens” gave Steve Smith, Janet Wood, and Norris-Watkins $500 each. Each vowed to resist the use of GMM. We can only wonder if their campaign donations were conditioned on their vow–they all lost big time. As of this writing there is no record that “Citizens” contributed to any candidate other than Smith, Wood, and Watkins. Wray continued to bob and weave. He evaded the truth by claiming that “his” group had only received a “little local funding.” We now know that Gray’s group, FKEC was not a recipient, it was a donor of $10k to “Citizens”. The truth is that “Citizens” did not receive only local money. “Citizens” was also funded by more than $12k from out of state anti-genetic engineering outfits. And it was further funded by quadruple and triple digit donations from local bit time real estate interests. Real estate interests have admitted that they oppose the Key Haven trial because they fear it would hurt their profits. The records are available for all to see. As if this writing the Florida Department of Health is reporting that there are 1158 reported cases of Zika in Florida, about 150 of those cases are in pregnant women. That’s an increase of 134 cases in just a month. Now there are 8 cases in Monroe County. The public has spoken. It’s time for the Florida Keys Mosquito Control Authority to begin using every available weapon to combat Zika. It’s time to stop dithering and get going with the safe and effective use of genetic engineering to kill the Zika vector. |
[My Peace TV] Perhaps we need this now more than ever. Get out the word, but do it peacefully. Peace! Video |
| [“Cutting cholesterol with statins to much below 200”] I hope 200 is the combo both good & bad. I have understood that your age plus 100 is a good range of combined good & not so good cholesterol. If you are 65, then 100 + 65 + 165 is just fine? |
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| Our First Amendment test is here. We can’t afford to flunk it. Link |
[Toadstool Foot Stool] Are organisms manufacturing’s future? Link |
| Great quote on Friday – how true it rings! It deserves repeating. “The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views–which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.” ~Dr. Who |
 [Texting at Meetings] Superintendent Porter, I listened to your interview, as I always do, with Bill Becker today on “Morning Magazine”. He asked you your thoughts on my proposal to ban text messaging during School Board meetings and workshops.
Your reply was straightforward, that you never engage in text messaging during a Board meeting because your focus is on the business at hand. I applaud you for placing immediate Board business above any other consideration and I believe that you are setting a good example for others. When asked if you thought the Board should adopt a policy statement on the subject, you demurred, saying that was up to the Board. That is correct; it is up to the Board to establish its own policies and procedures which is why I have encouraged the members, individually and collectively, to ban text messaging during sessions. The Florida House of Representatives is setting an excellent example for all legislative bodies in banning text messaging while conducting business and I hope that all such entities adopt a similar ban. |
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| [“Sewer connections”] We were very pleased with the work Slazar did for us from Lower Keys plumbers. There’s a dozen or so of us in the neighborhood and we all feel the price was great and the work was of very good quality and they were very considerate of our property too. |
[Bacon] Doctors are saying that each piece of bacon you eat takes 9 minutes off of your life… Based on that math, I should have died in 1732. |
| [Sewers] Cudjoe Regional Wastewater System treatment plant. A monitoring well on the property of the plant, which was built on an old landfill, has recorded fecal coliform at a level of “too many to count,” according to a company conducting testing for the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority. |
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| Chicago Cubs are being forced to give up their World Series title. Cleveland Indians fans have rioted across the country in protest of the 2016 World Series. Despite knowing the rules of the game prior to playing, they were unhappy they lost and demanded the outcome to be changed. They could be heard chanting “Not our World Series champion” all across America. Even though the Cubs won 4 games and the Indians only won 3, since both teams scored 27 total runs throughout all 7 games, they are being declared co-world champions. When questioned, Commissioner Manfred stated, “We felt as though it was the right thing to do for the nation. What kind of example would Major League Baseball be setting if we expected the adults who play this game, and their fans, to gracefully accept defeat? Instead of creating a bigger divide between the Cubs and Indians, MLB is confident that the Cubs will gladly share their victory with the Indians.” |
[Gardening for Butterflies] This elevates the concept from whimsical to essential, focusing on conserving endangered butterfly species; creating a safe habitat for these spectacular winged creatures through all life stages. Link |
| [Canal Tax] The canal tax proposal was withdrawn by the County Commission. I think they knew the public couldn’t be fooled twice. We were fooled into voting for the one cent tax to fund the sewers and they laughed at us and spent the money on buying a marina up the Keys. Never again! |
 In 1945 the Gulf Oil Corporation was drilling an oil well on Coupon Bight. A little over 50 years ago Kippy Watson showed me that cement slab & cap that was the test well. It was across from Big Pine Fishing camp on Long beach road. Appx 100 yards back in the mangroves. I don’t see how it could have moved. I also think it would take some hunting to find it. We were collecting baby tarpon that had been living in a small brackish pond in the same area. The tarpon were being used in a study at Old Miss University. The capped well had been sealed up for appx 20 years by that time. The time frame sounds right.
Exploration for oil and gas in Florida – UFDC Home – University of Florida Link ~Coconuts Joe |
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| A person might get the opinion that it’s sports that runs this country. Ha, guess who owns all the sports teams, the same people who own the media, food markets, and retail stores. Search it on the internet. |
[“Sloan’s 1160 votes”] Only miracle there is somebody not smart enough to know that votes are machine counted. And write-ins are only the oval filled in counted unless it’s really close! Sloan actually had only 109 votes. A quick check with election office confirmed that. Also there was a dog with 322 votes. Guess people have spoken on Sloan’s political career. A dog has a better chance of winning than Sloan. |
| [Elián González] “That picture of the military or SWAT team member holding an automatic weapon on an unarmed father and small child looks like something that would only happen in a 3rd world country or Communist nation.” It did, it was Miami during the last tenure of a President whose name began with a C. The AG that ordered the raid, died days before this recent election. |
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| [“Sewer hook-ups”] [Sewer Connections] I was told most people in Cudjoe Gardens are holding off hooking up because nobody believes this system will work right and become multi-million dollar disaster as we were told. We are keeping our septic tanks until the US Army makes us remove them. |
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| [Zika] Want Zika info? Check out the Florida Department of Environmental Protection website’s online newsroom. Link |
[Agent Orange] The secret nemesis of sick veterans. Link |
| [“Key West mayor race results”] I think that post on the mayor race wasn’t correct. I heard on the radio from the Election Commissioner that the 1,160 was write-in votes. Sloan got 106 or so of them. The other 1,000 were for the likes of Bugs Bunny, etc. |
For sale Brother fax phone, new, just bought it3 weeks ago. Never used $30 obo. I paid $45. Call 305 872 5679 |
| [“Noise”] The complaint about the dolphin marina is misguided. The boat launch is only open from 7:30 until 5 pm. The launch is locked anytime after these hours. The individual your speaking of was trespassing and is not the fault of the marina. |
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| [Screwworms] There is an urgent need for volunteers that would be interested in getting the information about screwworms out to the general public. There are some brief training sessions involved, then you could help by distributing door hangers with relevant info to the communities of the Lower Keys. If you are interested, they are asking that you sign up at the link below. I’m assuming you could be leaders in your own neighborhoods.
Its perfect weather to wander around and educate people, this will be especially helpful for incoming snowbirds who may have not even been aware of the ongoing incident. Thanks for considering this, its a really worthy cause. If you have further questions, please email Alison.Morales@flhealth.gov |
 [Evil Comcast] Our TV went out on November 4 and on Friday the 11th I got a call from Comcast “guaranteeing” a repair man will be here Sunday the 13th between 1-3 pm –“guaranteed!” Well, the time came and went and no repairman. I called them and they said my appointment had been re-scheduled to November 18.
They think so little of their customers that they wouldn’t even give me the courtesy of a phone call telling me no one was coming. We reshuffled our day off to be home at the time they said they’d be here. To add insult to injury, they re-scheduled our repair and didn’t even bother to tell us! That, my friends, is why we have monopoly laws (fear the Time Warner/ATT merger). Here in BPK, there’s nowhere else to go with such fast internet speeds as Comcast the monopoly. There’s just no recourse. I called them and they said they were sorry. Comcast just does not care about its customers. |
| [“Rotary Club no longer supports bike week”] I think the poster got that wrong, the rotary said they didn’t want to support it any longer because of the effort involved. For that amount of effort, they’d like to do other activities which don’t require so much time of the volunteers. I don’t think anyone ‘complained’ to cause this. It’s a really good event — and it’s huge, but doesn’t block the roadway like Ragnar Race did. I hope they find a way to keep it. Maybe the poster can volunteer and get others to volunteer to sponsor it. |
 Leon Russell died Sunday. R.I.P. Leon. I saw him standing out on the sand bar at Bahia Honda State Park in the late 1980’s; his white hair blowing in the wind; a gentle smile always on his face. Video
Leon Russell — A Song For You |
| [Rent Control] I wonder what would happen if the government passed rent laws where a limit is placed on rents so people can live a decent life without having to have several jobs to pay their room and board. On the other hand, what if renting was banded and the only way you have to get a roof over your head was to buy a property. All property values would have to come down so people could afford the mortgages and insurances, right? This would also drive out the non-productive freeloaders and clean out the useless in America. Some EU countries think this way already. In other words, if you do not work for your food and shelter, you do not get any. |
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| Looking at the Konk News pictures and reading their articles, I realized how radically the Keys have changed in just a dozen years. It seems all the weak sister types, charity hounds, out-right weirdos and other rejects have moved in to conquer our pirate paradise and ruin it for us party animals. Why did we hardcores let this happen? Time to more on and let these mud mounds get concreted into fenced resorts and hotel havens. Things change! |
[“Name that bug”] The nest in the carburetor filter was made by a leaf cutter bee. |
| When we read about the 35.6 billion metric tons of CO2 added to the atmosphere in 2012 the scale is so large I think some individuals have a hard time visualizing how our combined contributions add up and this is because purchasing fossil fuel is a nearly effortless process. The industry standard purchase resembles: uh-oh fuel gauge getting low, time to pull in to a gas station, put the nozzle in the fill tube, squeeze the handle and the fuel is effortlessly dispensed into the tank for you. Once the full tank is paid for and you drive away and the weight of you purchase disappears invisibly out the tailpipe. It is because of the effortless acquisition and the invisible consumption that leads to the disconnect. One way to make the connection is to feel the weight of the gasoline in a 5 gallon jug At about 6 lbs per gallon the 5 gallon jug weighs about thirty pounds. I own a small car and on Empty my tank can accept about 13 gallons or roughly 78 pounds of fuel. I expect to fill my cars tank a couple times a month, they do not effortlessly and over a year twice a month fill ups add up to be 156 x 12 or 1872 pounds of fuel, now think about all the cars you pass on the highway, all the trucks airplanes, boats, motorcycles, 35.6 billion metric tons; 35,600,000,000 tons metric converted to pounds equals 78,483,760,000,000 pounds, just for 2012 |
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| Habitat for Humanity is asking the Key West City Commission for $860,000 in Monroe County Land Authority funds for assistance with three Lower Keys projects.
This is the same piggy bank Mayor Cates led the charge raiding to the tune of $12.5 million, and giving it to a mainland private real estate development corporation to use as its zero cost down payment on the market rate (“affordable”) Peary Court apartment project, the rest of the purchase price to be borrowed by the mainland corporation. The nonprofit organization is requesting $400,000 for the construction of three workforce-housing units, $400,000 to pay off an acquisition debt and $60,000 for repairs to a Bahama Village residence. The first elephant in this living room is, what the city most needs is very low and low income (actually affordable) rental housing. Built by the Housing Authority on free city land. That’s all the piggy bank should be used for. The second elephant is this is not for purchase, but is after the purchase. The proper time to make this request was before Habitat acquired, borrowed or spent any money on city property. Could it be Habitat had no clue before the Peary Court piggy bank raid that the piggy bank was actually a first-come, first serve give away, for Mayor Cates and the city commission to avoid ever partnering with the Housing Authority to build the very low and low rental housing the city actually needs? |
 The recent political campaign is a reflection of the times. Everything is extreme. People have to demonize you now. People just can’t point out your shortcoming or opposing view, they must try to radicalize you in everyone else’s mind. They try make you seem far worse than you are. Someone said people commit violent acts because it feels so good. We have entered the time of the bully and the time of hate. |
| [Unedited] South Roosevelt to get butchered up to waste more of our tax monye! People have to wake up and smell the PC BS and take back our right to OUR MONYE and not let the “suites” squander it of their ego trips. N. Roosevelt Blvd. is fine the way it is except for the stupid crawl speed limit. Jack it up to 45 MPH so people can get somewhere! |
[“Key West needs a giant drunk tank far more than it needs a homeless shelter”] No, it needs to throw out the bleeding heart losers who suck money from us tax payers and use these bums as meal tickets. Ship that trash to Mexico or Central America where it is warm! |
| Mo: I figured out why they have a high and low urinal in the men’s rooms. Joe: Yeah, the low one’s so you don’t have to bend anything! |
| Submit anything but National Politics to island@bigpinekey.com For National Politics go directly to that page, log in, and post your comment. NATIONAL POLITICS |
The Anti movement was roundly defeated in the election. Every candidate that they supported was soundly defeated.
