THE MASTERS AT DON’S PLACE

I was in a thoughtful mood yesterday. My thoughts had to do with my life and Key West.

I discovered and started visiting Key West 26 years ago. Bought my home here 16 years ago. Retired to live full time in Key West 8 years ago.

My life has changed. There has been a total transformation over the years. I no longer dress. It is hard to remember the last time I wore a suit and tie. I do wear long pants (khakis or jeans) about six times a year when it is cold. I rarely know the date or what day of the week it is. I always wear shorts. Crocs, sandals or sneaks depending on the occasion.

Everyone else who has spent a number of years in Key West is as I am. A wonderful world!

I referred to Don’s Place yesterday as the adult playpen of the world. It is typical of Key West. Key Westers enjoy playing games. Just as when they were kids.

Yesterday was the 1st Annual Don’s Place Masters. Seventeen of us played before a huge crowd. The bar was packed! We putted on the bar floor into plastic cups. Not easy. Don’s floor is three different stages of concrete. The undulations were amazing. You could not see them. However, they were there. It was like putting on the closest cut greens ever. A light touch of the ball took you ten feet passed the cup!

The plastic cup holes had miniature flags on them. Hershel served as warden. He had signs saying Quiet Please. The whole scene was like for real.

We played 14 holes. The course was laid out with 7 holes. That is all there was room for. We played the layout twice. I had the highest score. Consistent with my life long lack of physical dexterity. I also attribute it to my age. I was the oldest person playing. Keith won. The spread between his score and mine was a city block!

I have been a Mad Men fan since the show’s inception some ten years ago. Last night was the first show of the new season. I was disappointed. As I was with last season’s shows. The story line has become boring.

However, credit must be given to the accuracy time wise of the presentation. It was around 1970. The accountants were taking over businesses, penny pinchers who knew nothing about a particular business running them. The sex. Wow! Women’s  clothes and hair perfect for the time.

The show brought me back.

Do we understand? What has been going on in Europe can easily cross the Atlantic and happen here. I refer specifically to protests and demonstrations and neo-Nazism. A body of water is no protection from what has been and is occurring in Greece, Italy, France and England.

We have experienced a touch of it in recent days.

There is Charles Bundy in Nevada. Apparently a man of principle. He opposed federal intervention re his cattle raising. Of itself, nothing to get excited about. What did concern  me was the 1,000 armed people who came from all over the United States to defend Bundy against the government. Militia men. Dressed in military camouflage uniforms. All carrying a weapon. All prepared to shot if the government took steps they deemed improper.

You wonder why gun rights have become so important in the United States. There are a sizable number in our society who do not trust government. They are anti-government as government exists today. They arm themselves in preparation for the day the government turns, from their perception, on them.

It almost happened in Nevada this past week. It did not because the government backed off. Whether correct, I have no judgment.

Then there is the neo-Nazi movement. Thus far primarily visible in Europe. Yesterday, in the United States. A group of neo-Nazis killed three Jews at two different Jewish Centers in Kansas City.

Does Kansas City represent the beginning of overt anti-Semetism in this country? Perhaps.

None of this is healthy. I sometimes feel as a nation we are teetering on the edge of a cliff. We must pull back. I am not certain it is possible.

Enjoy your day!

POLITICS MAKES FOR STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

I did absolutely nothing yesterday. My back kept me confined to bed all day. Such was my day. Ergo, nothing to report activity wise.

However, there is something I would like to share. It involves neo-Nazis, Ukraine, the United States, the American media, and anti-Semitism. Read on for a most interesting blog.

The sole purpose of this article is to ask why our government and the media fail to keep us informed about that which I am to relate.

Some of you may have seen on the internet last night news reports regarding a television CEO in the Ukraine who was beaten by some far right politicians and forced to resign. Note I said internet, not television. The far right individuals were members of the Ukraine Svoboda Party. The beating itself was shown on two internet sites.

I could be wrong about that which I am about to relate. I do not think so. I did not see any similar news report in/on any American media. Why?

Note that I have been discussing the Svoboda Party and the issues contained herein for three weeks.

The Svoboda Party is far right. It is actually the neo-Nazi Party in Ukraine. It is one of Ukraine’s five largest political parties It was nothing till the 2012 elections when it won its first Parliament seats. Ten per cent of the vote got the party 37 seats in Parliament. Since Ukraine has coalition government, this gave the Svoboda Party major clout in the new government.

The leader of the Svoboda Party is Olah Tyahnybok. He believes in violence as a way of capturing the minds and souls of  people. Just as Hitler did in the 1930s. Personal brutality, beatings, breaking of store fronts, synagogue bombings.

The Svoboda is anti-Communist, anti-Russian, and anti-Semitic.

Anti-Semitism is part of the Party platform. The Party was first named the Social-National party. An intentional reference to Adolph Hitler’s National Socialist Party.

The Ukraine neo-Nazis have a youth program. Uniforms and all. At a recent rally, a Svoboda youth leader distributed Nazi propaganda written by Joseph Goebbels.

The Party platform calls for “…..one race, one nation, one Fatherland.”

Tyahnybok has called in the past for Ukraines to fight against the Muscovite-Jewish mafia. Another Party leader referred to the Holocaust as “…..a period of Light in history.”

As I have written over the past three years, neo-Nazism is on the rise in Europe. Hungry people will follow radical leaders who promise and provide more. Greece has an especially strong neo-Nazi party. Italy’s less strong, but growing. Ukraine’s neo-Nazis have been developing strong ties recently with the Italian group.

A prominent Ukraine rabbi is Hillel Cohen. He was recently attacked in Kiev by anti-Semitics. He was beaten and stabbed in the leg. He was called anti-Semitic slurs. He was referred to as zyhd. Ukraine for kike.

Also recently, a synogauge in eastern Ukraine was firebombed. Damage was slight and there were no injuries.

The neo-Nazi Svoboda Party are part of the “good guys” opposing Russia. They are part of the group that the United States and the Euro nations are supporting. It is reported money has already been sent by the United States to this group.

Recently, Senator Mc Cain had his picture taken with Tyahnybok. As has Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. The photos appeared in European newspapers. I am not aware of them appearing in American newspapers or television news reports.

My question again is a simple one. Why are not the American people being made aware of what is going on regarding the Svoboda Party? We hear nothing from the government or news media. We should know who our government is supporting and more importantly, why? There is no transparency.

I am merely sharing. Draw your own conclusions. Ask your own questions. Do your own research.

As always, enjoy your day!

BURNED PANCAKES

 

As you are aware, I have been on a diet. In 4.5 weeks, I have lost 20 pounds. The diet is Nutrisystem. It obviously works. It should. I am taking in less than 1,000 calories a day.

The food comes prepackaged. One of the items is a mix for pancakes. Total calories 140. I made the pancakes this morning. The mix resulted in four pancakes, each two inches in diameter.

Not much.

I left them in the frying pan on the stove cooking. Returned to my computer which is about five feet from the stove. I work with the doors to the ocean open behind me.

After a while, I started to smell something burning. Who is cooking out at this hour of the morning, I thought. I kept working. The smell became more pronounced. Finally, it dawned on me! The pancakes! Burned to a crisp. Stuck hard to the pan.

A bad start to the day. Food is the most important thing when a person is dieting.

The Key West Lou Legal Hour was yesterday morning. Just me and Krystal. No Jenna. Jenna went back home to Indiana for Christmas. She was supposed to leave Wednesday. The snow storm hit. The storm continued through thursday. Today is the first day she could fly out.

Krystal and I made do. Though the inconvenience was more on her shoulders than mine.

The show went well. I was surprised what interested viewers the most. I thought it would have been the fiscal cliff. Instead, it was Germany from various perspectives.

I discussed four  German related items. The Neo-Nazi party in Greece which is now Greece’s third largest political party, a statue of Hitler recently placed in front of the Warsaw Ghetto, Germany in effect now deporting its elderly to Eastern Europe and Asian nursing and assisted care homes, and a German cabinet minister who insists God is a woman.

After the show, I walked. Since it was warm, I walked inside Home Depot. Comfortably air conditioned.

I would term myself a floor walker at Home Depot. Many think I work there. I am constantly asked questions like where is this or that, what do I need to do a particuar job, etc. Me, who never even owned a screwdriver his whole life!

Home Depot takes care of its property. Sometime in the last 48 hours, the floors were polished. They sparkled.

I wrote next week’s column for KONK Life. Titled Term Limits. The thrust was that it  is not that easy to invoke term limits on our Senators and Congressman. People should be aware. Term limits might not be the solution.

KONK Life hits the streets wednesday. Read the article. It is an eye opener.

Key West weather continues to be excellent. We are blessed!

Enjoy your day!