DEMOCRAT FORUM LAST NIGHT A WINNER

Posted on by

A time when Republicans are screwing up. In just about  everything. One being the Presidential debates. Terrible. A disgrace. The candidates in revolt.

Last night was a Democrat debate. Described as a forum. I can understand. All three candidates not on the stage at the same time. Each had his/her own time seated directly opposite moderator Rachel Maddow.

I learned more last night regarding Clinton’s and Sander’s positions and thoughts than I had before. The debate/forum a success from my perspective. Assuming of course that the purpose of these things is to make people aware of policy positions.

Maddow deserves credit for the success. She handled the entire event skillfully. No gotcha attempts. Previous moderators from debates by both sides could learn a lesson from Maddow.

Martin O’Malley for the first time got a chance to show his stuff. He is around 2 per cent in the polls. Made no difference. He was a candidate and got equal time. As a result, for the fist time people are aware of his positions and learned he is an intelligent personality.

Lunch with Jennifer yesterday at Roostica. We had business to discuss.

I ordered also a Sicilian deep dish pizza to go. My dinner last night. I stayed in to watch the Democrat forum.

Syracuse/Louisville at 12:30. I plan on watching. Hope I can get it on TV down here. So far every game has been available. Though none ever listed. I believe the game will be shown on CBS itself. Whatever, I look froward to watching.

Syracuse a 14 point underdog. Three key defensive players did not make the trip. Injuries. Not mentioned as an excuse. Merely for information purposes..

Syracuse is 3-5. Louisville 4-4. Just maybe Syracuse might win.

Howard Livingston tonight. At Casa Marina. He is entertaining the Parrot Heads. I believe the public is welcome.

Sick minds on the island. Nothing new. Still commenting negatively about Fantasy Fest. Specifically, this time the Zombie Bike Ride. A “drunken sexually charged, skin and leather affair…..madness.” As set forth in this morning’s Key West  Citizen’s Voice.

I have never participated in the Zombie Bike Ride. Just about everyone I know doses, however. Ingenious costumes. Bikes decorated. Faces skillfully disguised. Many families. Tons. Entire business offices.

I cannot believe drunken, sexual, etc. Most of the riders not the type who would do such things publically.

We live in a crazy world. I say it every week on my blog talk radio show. Another shooting. Marksville, Louisiana.

Six year old Jeremy Mardis buckled via a seat belt in the front passenger seat. His step father driving. Six year old Jeremy shot to death. His stepfather hospitalized with bullets lodged in his brain and a lung. The shots fired by police officers.

Two police officers arrested and charged with murder yesterday. The police chief on TV said the “…..most disturbing thing I’ve seen.” Meager details so far. Vague. I hope they come out today.

Today in the year 1917. The first free Russia government was overthrown. The White Bolsheviks headed by Alexander Kerensky were deposed by the Red Bolsheviks led by Lenin. Kerensky had been the first President of free Russia.

Alexander Kerensky taught me Russian history when I was in college. Exciting courses. Learning from a man who was there for the revolution and played a big part in it.

He had to escape Russia immediately when deposed. He escaped through European countries and then into South America. Eventually, he made his way to the United States.

Enjoy your day!

I FELL AGAIN

Posted on by

I fell again. Last night. At bocce.

A step involved again.

I had just made a great bocce shot. I was excited. I turned around swiftly and stepped up out of the court. A six inch rise. Moved too fast. Did not lift my right foot enough. Stubbed my right foot on the rise/step.

Little damage. A one inch in diameter scrape. Bit of bleeding. Washed it off and someone gave me a large band aid.

Why do I mention these falls?

This blog is, amongst other things, my Life in Key West. Falling has become a part of that life.

We won all three bocce games. Wowie! Next week we play the #1 team. The best of the best! They are miles ahead of every other team in the league. Including ours. Not a negative observation. A factual one. We will be up for the match, however.

My yesterday began with the anti-gravity treadmill. Impossible to fall on it. I am locked in from the waist down.

Then to 5 Guys for a cheeseburger. I have tried to avoid meat for a week. I had a sudden desire for beef. Enjoyed the cheeseburger!

Not many people in 5 Guys. Strange. Three when I entered at 12:30. Three more came in while I was there.

The Parrot Heads Convention this week. The Parrot Heads are holding their convention at Casa Marina. They were joined last night by Jimmy Buffett! The Parrot Heads have been Jimmy Buffett followers for 24 years.

Buffett announced he will be playing in Havana saturday night. Wonderful! An example the US/Cuba reconciliation is working.

I will be on the radio today. KONK News. 104.9. Sometime between noon and one o’clock. I will be interviewed concerning this week’s KONK Life column The Looting of Social Security.

Democrat debate tonight. Rachel Maddow the moderator. Her questions will be right on in comparison to what the Republican candidates have been subjected to.

I will be watching. Friday night home in Key West watching a political debate! Love it!

Power Boat Races start this weekend. Exciting and dangerous! US 1 will be crowded today with boats being towed in for the races.

Syracuse plays Louisville tomorrow. Louisville a two touchdown favorite. Does not bother me. I hope we win. Not important at this point in the season, however. Next year we will be much better. The following year in the mix. Syracuse is heavy with freshmen  and sophomore players. Most of whom are starting this season.

Ben Carson is starting to worry me. Joseph built the pyramids to store wheat? If so, where did all the jewelry and mummies come from that I have spent years viewing in various museums? Why does the Old Testament fail to mention Joseph’s feat? The answer simple. It did not happen as Carson portrays.

Carson wanted to or did hit his mother in the head and wanted to stab or did stab a friend in his early years. Tied in with the Joseph belief, I am beginning to question his state of mind to be President.

Enjoy your day!

 

KEY WEST CEMETERY

Posted on by

I find cemeteries a turn on. History has always intrigued me. I took to walking through cemeteries at an early age and reading tombstones. There was a lot of history to be learned.

The Key West Cemetery is interesting. From sailors who died when the USS Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor to the smart Key Wester who had inscribed on his tombstone: I told you I was sick.

This saturday, the Key West cemetery is offering escorted tours. The guides will explain the significance of certain graves. If you have not already, I suggest you take the tour. I have been through the cemetery twice with a guide and several times alone. Each time I discovered something new.

Call it global warming. Call it climate change. Whatever, it gets worse not year by year, but season by season. The abnormal amount of snow in the northeast. Now, this minus zero cold streak.

The freezing storm up north began to be felt in Key West last night. Temperature during the night about 60. Wind  blowing big time. The palm trees blowing one way. From north to south.

Today the high is 60. Tonight 50. Tonight, bocce. It will be in the mid 50s with a cold biting wind coming in off the Atlantic. I am tempted to stay home. However when I was a Key West golfer, I learned that “men” always show up to play regardless of the weather. I will be a man tonight.

Larry Smith, Christine Cordone and Kathleen Peace headed what I assume was a great show at the former Wine Galley last night. I had intended to go. Jenna was my date. I called her monday and cancelled. My excuse, I could see from the weather reports that it was going to be very cold. Social events do not have the same status as sporting ones. Manliness not an issue.

Missing Larry provided the opportunity to watch the Syracuse/Louisville game. Syracuse won 69-59. A good game all around. Syracuse pulled away in the last 5 minutes to win. The victory was the first time this season Syracuse has beat a top 25 team. Louisville was ranked #12.

My KONK Life column this week is titled What Recovery? It hit the stands yesterday. This morning, it was posted on my Key West Lou site. If KONK life is not available to you, you can find it there.

ISIS is sick! Beheadings, burying people alive and burning people to death. Now a new form of sickness. ISIS is a money making machine. The leaders are aware that big dollars are required to run their organization. ISIS is now selling body organs. Removed from captured men, women and children. Many times without anesthesia. Doctors are recruited to do the operations. If a doctor refuses, he is killed.

Body parts like hearts, livers and kidneys bring big dollars on the international black market. $100,000 to $150,000 is not uncommon.

I received two comments this morning relating what is happening to 1939. One was regarding economics. The other ISIS burnings. A relevant quote…..”It’s 1939 again. Hitler is back and he’s a  Muslim. From killing people in ovens to burning them in cages and trucks.”

Enjoy your day!

WHAT RECOVERY?

Posted on by

Last night was Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou, my blog talk radio show. My comments re the U.S.’s economic recovery initiated responsive comments.

The title of the segment was What Recovery? I also wrote this week’s KONK Life column on the subject. It publishes today.

The thrust of the comments and column is that the economy has only been good for the rich. The 1/99 percent thing again. A nation that has 16 million homeless public school children, 51 percent of public school children living in poverty, food stamps at an all time high, small businesses still struggling,  has a long way to go.

I spent a portion of yesterday fine tuning the show in preparation for last night.

I also did a couple of hours of pleasure reading. I am into a book on Italians. The Italian Americans by Maria Laurino. Published last month. I am learning things about my heritage I never knew.

The weather is crazy. Rain and thunder last night. This morning black. One blast of thunder woke me. I actually sat up.

The water is rough. Today definitely not a boating day.

A new cold spell is moving easterly. Big time cold. Arctic cold. Perhaps the lowest temperatures ever. As usual, bad weather up north affects Key West. Tonight, the temperature drops to 56 degrees. The high today 69. The high tomorrow 60. Yes, 60 degrees!

This morning’s Key West Citizen carries a picture of people waiting to get into the Hemingway House. I drive by the Hemingway House several times a week. I have noticed in the past several weeks more and more people waiting to get in. In the past if you had to wait in line, the line ended at the wall entrance. Now it runs almost to Truman.

The line tells me not so much an increased interest in Hemingway. Rather it evidences the fantastic early tourist season Key West is enjoying.

ISIS. What do we do? Above my pay scale. I hope however our government firms down on a procedure and goes after them. My fear is that we are only going to do it in a half hearted way. Time is not with us. It is almost a certainty that at some point ISIS will strike here in the U.S.

ISIS at it again. In Iraq, they placed 45 persons on the bed of an open truck, doused them with gasoline, and burned them to death. Videoed for the world’s watching, of course.

ISIS knows how to make money to support its endeavors and people. They are not a bunch of ragged fighters living in caves. The newest ISIS money maker is the sale of body parts. Body parts a very profitable item on the world market. Hearts, livers and kidneys in high demand.

Doctors are required to remove the body parts. From the living who end up not living. If a doctor refuses, he is killed.

Syracuse/Louisville tonight at 7. ESPN. At the moment, I plan on watching the game at Don’s Place. Louisville is a 5.5 point favorite.

Larry Smith with a major musical event this evening at the Pier House. Where the Wine Galley used to be. Christine Cardone and Kathleen Peace featured.

Enjoy your day!