BOCCE RETURNS

The weather recent mornings has been glorious. All the good things. Like the sun, a bit of a breeze, calm waters. No humidity. The humidity hits as the day gores on. The temperature runs over 90. The evenings are unbearable till the sun goes down.

The new bocce season began last night. The heat and humidity were heavy. Instantaneous sweat. Conditions continued until the end of the first game when the sun disappeared behind some clouds before setting.

Hot or not, it was great to be back playing bocce! Nothing like it! About 150 of us. All happy to be there. Hellos and hugs all over the place.

We won 2 of 3 games. A good start to the season. We were losing 8-1 in the first game. Then came back to win 16-12. The second game was close till the end. We lost. I played the second game. The third game was ours all the way.

My day time was easy. A haircut with Lori. then lunch again with Robert and Ally. They start school monday. Both are ready and anxious to go.

I spent the afternoon writing next week’s KONK Life column. Glory and Disgrace. The Air Battle for Britain and the Fall of Singapore. We all know about the air war which the British won. Few know why Singapore fell. Singapore was surrendered by the British without a shot being fired. The reasons why are extremely interesting.

This Ferguson, Missouri thing continues to bother me. I do not agree with the way the President is handling it. Martial law should have been declared and the Missouri National Guard federalized. The bad guys in this thing are the militarized police. Failure to take extreme action makes it look like there was enough wrongdoing on both sides that a softer approach was warranted.

It make work in Ferguson. However, it sets no example for the rest of the nation. Militarized police in other areas will not be worried that the roof will fall in if another Ferguson occurs.

The militarization of our police is an interesting subject. I have been talking and warning about it for two years. On my TV and radio shows and in my writings. There is more to this than just the over militarization of police.

The NRA got a big boost out of Ferguson. I suspect in short time the NRA will be saying the reason the people need guns is because of what happened in Ferguson…..To protect themselves against an over zealous government.

There is a new Baseball Commissioner. Robert Manfred. I make mention of him because he grew up in Rome, NY. Rome is 14 miles from my home town Utica.

The Key West Citizen ran a Walter Scott quote in its World Almanac section this morning. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” I used a slightly different variation in summing up to juries when I had caught a witness in a bald faced lie…..What a tangled web we weave, when first we seek to deceive.” Spoken slowly. Repeated one time. The juries loved it!

Today is the anniversary of the opening day of Woodstock. Three Days of Peace and Music as it was titled. I was 34 at the time. Did not attend. Had no desire to attend. Other than the great music that came out of Woodstock, I see no value today in glorifying 400,000 drugged persons rolling around in the mud having sex for three days. And, a prude I am not.

Enjoy your day!

BOCCE AND SOCIAL SECURITY

Bocce and Social Security. The two are related. Sort of.

Tonight the new bocce season begins. August 14, 2014. Exciting!

On this same day August 14 in 1935, President Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act. Exciting, also! Without the law, there would be no Social Security and Medicare today.

A point of information. People are always saying Social Security is broke. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If the United States honored its obligations.

President Johnson needed money for the Vietnam War. He looked at all the money sitting idle in the Social Security Fund. He legally devised a method by which the government could take the unused funds for its own purposes. The government keeps taking and never pays back.

The United States owes the Social Security Fund $2.7 trillion. Social Security is the government’s biggest creditor. Number 2 China is owed less than $1 trillion.

When people yell Social Security is broke, they either intentionally forget or do not know what I have set forth. Even today the government continues to  borrow money from the Social Security Fund. Your money and mine.

My yesterday began with a manicure at Lee Nails. Love Tammy!

I spent the afternoon researching further next week’s KONK Life column. Glory and Disgrace. About Great Britain in the early days of World War II. I plan on writing the column this afternoon.

Don’s Place was my first stop last night. Don is back. I was glad to see him.

I chatted a while with Stan and Clare and Hershel and Erika. Bocce, of course. Said hello to Grant.

Then to the Chart Room. Buffalo’s Tom Dixon is back in town! A rabid Syracuse fan. A Buffalo Bills fan, also. I asked Tom how the football team was going to be this year. He said terrific. I could not understand. Syracuse football has not distinguished itself in years. Turned out he was talking about the Buffalo Bills.

Tom’s wife Fran joined us. A charming lady.

We were together quite a while. We agreed to dine monday night at the Hot Tin Roof.

I had dinner at the outside bar at La Te Da. Always an interesting venue.

The people of the Keys and the turtles who live in its waters are lucky to have the Marathon Turtle Hospital.

Pine Tyme is an 80 pound loggerhead. In June, some fisherman found him in the ocean off Big Pine unable to dive. They got him on their boat and brought the turtle to the Turtle Hospital. Where he was named Pine Tyme.

Pine Tyme’s problem was gas in his intestines. He was not expelling it. He was full of air. No wonder he could not dive.

Pine Tyme has been treated and cured with antibiotics. He will be returned to the ocean friday.

I have been discussing on my various shows and in writing the past two years what I describe as the militarization of our police. Police departments across the country are receiving left over war machinery from the government. Police have also become cocky since 9/11. An item I discussed on my blog talk radio show this past tuesday.

Validity for my remarks is what is happening in Ferguson, Missouri at the moment. People are demonstrating. Some looting. The police have prohibited protesting in groups. Last night, the police were out in military gear. Armored vehicles. Repeating guns on top of them. The police used smoke bombs and tear gas to stop the demonstrators. At this point the demonstrators were merely walking down the street in group fashion.

You cannot defecate on a people. The demonstrators retaliated with molotov cocktails.

See the pictures and videos on television and the internet. Decide for yourself whether the police went too far, whether the police incited the retaliatory violence by the crowd.

Enjoy your day!