Letters to the editor with pictures since 2002.
Published on Big Pine Key’s garbage days, Tuesdays and Fridays.
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 Sixteen years after my being wounded on a battlefield in Vietnam, I marched in a New York City parade tolled as an event to honor the Veterans of that war. This staged event ran shallow and flat.
After America’s tragic loss and bloodletting in Vietnam, details came to light regarding the questionable management of that war. Myself and the Marines I marched with had first-hand experiences with the ineffective policies proffered by our government in the prosecution of that war. Of particular note was the “body count strategy”, which kept baseball type scoreboards posted up in “Command Posts” tallying the numbers of Vietnamese killed each day, as opposed to our Soldiers killed in action on that same day. A running tally was kept and displayed. This count would determine which side was winning the war. This poorly thought-out strategy for the guerilla war type of action we encountered in Vietnam was authored by desperately incompetent leaders, corrupted by their many years of ineffectiveness. It was rift with abuse and misapplication. It incentivized the killing of Vietnamese civilians in order to keep the numbers up. After the parade I searched the crowd for a familiar face. None were there. They had been left behind in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Please continue to A Soldier’s Journey |
[Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle Show] I’ve been to this show a couple of times. Amazing. Best time to go in my opinion is early morning. Link |
| Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. ~Daniel Patrick Moynihan |
[Classic Lines] What happened to new movies. Where are all the iconic lines like, I’ll be back, Go ahead, make my day, Luke, I am your father, Beam me up, Scotty, If you build it they will come, etc? |
| [Virus Brain Fog] Memory loss and ‘brain fog’ may be side effects of COVID-19, new study shows. Link |
Why doesn’t UPS deliver 7 days? |
| Perhaps Alex Baldwin should worry about firearms first, instead of mocking others. |
[“Never anything good from Haiti”] Did you hear that they don’t have any ice in Haiti because they lost the recipe. |
| [“MSM”] MSM means main stream media. The only difference between main stream media and the others is that main stream media verifies every story twice. The others don’t verify at all. It’s wild out there without verification. The truth is lost. |
 [“Name that fish”] You can be sure that if some people knew there is a fish called Slippery Dick they would find it offensive. And to make matters worse, it is also a wrasse. Say “your wrasse” out loud a few times and you will see what I mean.Hagfish is also offensive to women who may not have done well in the looks department. |
| Affordable Housing is just an invitation for out-of-town people to move here. I’ve never understood the game the County plays. If they really wanted affordable housing, they would legalize downstairs enclosures. But no one would profit except the homeowner and tenant. |
[“Slippery dick picture”] The fish pictured is actually a Sand Tile fish. |
| Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. ~Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Union politician |
This morning, I accidentally changed the GPS voice to “Male.” Now it just says, “It’s around here somewhere, keep driving.” |
| [Blackness] What’s with the attempt by the visual industries staggering bombardment of all things black. Is it your basic brainwashing to try turning everybody black? Here’s a tip for the visual businesses, there’s only 13% of people who are likely to be interested in blackness. Every time I see a black commercial or black show or an Oreo family I just get pissed-off at their crude attempt to convince me that it’s good to be black. I just don’t want to be black and I’m sure the black community doesn’t want me to emulate them. Ok, so I’m a White racist. Big deal. I’m a racist just like Maxine Waters is a Black racist. |
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| [Afghan Refugees] Fort McCoy, a sprawling Army base surrounded by miles of cornfields and Christmas tree farms in Wisconsin, is hosting the largest population of new Afghan evacuees in the U.S. Since the first families arrived in late August, it has grown into a small city of more than 12,600 refugees, almost half of them children, along with thousands more military and support staff. For the Afghans, it has been a blur of government interviews, paperwork, vaccinations, and talking to family left behind when they fled Kabul amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal. Link |
[Selfies] Well, at least the horse smiled. |
| What about cleaning my catch? When cleaning your catch, don’t throw fish carcasses into canals or boat basins where they can add excess nutrients into the water. Instead, wrap the fish newspaper and throw it away. Excess nutrients use up oxygen that is needed by living fish and ma cause undesirable algae blooms. |
 [Pump Water Out West] Ok, I’m not a scientist, but, if certain areas of the US are drying out from lack of water, and south Floridians are suffering from high water levels, king tides, etc, why cannot a large scale pumping system be developed to fix both problems? |
| [Crumbling Buildings] Santa Clara condos in Key West. Wow! Repairs were never made and the place going to hell. Now an out-of-town consultant from Tampa does a 3 hour tour of the place and comes up with a 10 million dollar repair estimate. Do you think 3 hours would give you the full scope of costs? Still each property owner is still looking at an approximate bill of $115,000. I think the association has been out to lunch for many, many years to allow. |
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| [State of the Art] The Google Pixel 6 brings a new chip and lofty, AI-powered promises. The new Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones promise big camera upgrades and clever automations to handle complex tasks. Link |
 Stop building in the Keys! The Overseas Hwy is deadly. Timely hurricane evacuation impossible. The breathtaking views on the Overseas Highway can be deceptive. There’s danger ahead. Video |
| [Paradise Lost] My wife went shopping the other day and came home very upset. Prices for everything have gone nuts in the Keys. From now on we buy online and have the stuff shipped in. Screw the greedy merchants! We are realistically planning to get out of the Keys. They have lost the paradise they were. |
 [Scary Nature] Creatures that have made spookiness their brand. Some of them deserve their own horror movies. Link |
[Name that Fish] The slippery dick (Halichoeres bivittatus) is a species of wrasse. Also the main ingredient of this tasty treat |
| [Personality] Always love a woman for her personality. They have like 10, so you can choose. |
This is why Germans don’t play Scrabble. |
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