DUI SOBRIETY CHECK POINT

I have always thought there was a degree of unfairness when police use radar or a sobriety check point. It sort of gives authorities an unfair advantage. The fact that I might be wrong being immaterial.

Florida is a screwy state when it comes to laws. One good law requires police to give notice when and where a sobriety check point will be established. Together with the hours. Fair.

There is a sobriety check point tonight on US 1 and Cross Street for north bound traffic. It has been advertised in the Key West Citizen twice this week. To be forwarned is to be forearmed. Stay away from US 1 and Cross Street from 7 to 2 tonight.

I am. Not that I get smashed and drive. I drink, but very rarely to excess. However, one never knows. Better safe than sorry. I shall either stay home this evening or limit my out of house activities to the three places that do not require me to pas through the check point. Roostica, Hogfish, and Geiger Key.

Sad that a sobriety check point is being conducted this evening. Tonight is the Lighted Boat Parade. To attend would take me into town. On the way back, I would have to drive through the check point.

I would have watched the Boat Parade from Schooners Wharf. It will be cold enough there. Around 62 degrees. On a boat, the experience 20 degrees cooler.

I wrote my KONK Life column for next week yesterday afternoon. The American Dream Revisited / Torture Pays. There is money to be made it doing sick and  distasteful things. Like torturing. The column concerns the two individuals who were paid $81 million to devise and help implement a torture system to be used on Guantanamo and other located detainees.

An interesting article. Especially where it is spelled out how the government got ripped off.

It was cold last night. Mid 60s when I decided to go out. The Chart Room friday evenings seems to be absent regulars. When  I am out and about, I am first looking for the company of friends. My sense was that the Chart Room regulars were doing the outside Galleon bar fridays. The bar is located on the water.

Ergo, I did not even stop first at the Chart Room. Went straight to the Galleon. I was wrong. No friends. No one I knew. Cold as hell! The wind off the ocean. JJ bartending. I had one drink and was gone. I decided it was too cold to stay out and went home.

I mentioned the other day that gasoline had dropped to $2.99 at the K-Mart station on the boulevard. The Shell station near my home was still $3.10. Yesterday, it dropped to $2.99.  This morning’s paper says gas prices will continue to drop. About time! We got screwed for too many years.

This morning’s Key West Citizen carried an article regarding the arrest of two local men. Alleged marijuana charges. The article also advised a continuing investigation regarding an alleged illegal gambling operation. The nick name of one of the individuals is Joe Weed. He is an $85,000 a year computer analyst for  the Monroe County schools.

I do not know whether is he guilty or innocent. I really do not care. His business, his headache. What bothers me however is that he is one of the leaders of the group protesting nudity during Fantasy Fest. Hypocrisy, assuming he is guilty.

Street demonstrations are occurring all over the world. Not just in the United States. This week alone, Greece, Italy and Haiti. Not a healthy situation. Sometimes however, it is the only way a people can be heard.

My friend Anna in Novara contacted me yesterday. There were demonstrations in 50 Italian cities. Union led. No one worked. Brought Italy to a halt for one day. Italian demonstrations are riots. Actual clashing with the police. See the pictures on the internet.

The economy is the problem. As with Greece, the austerity measures imposed on the people have become onerous. They won’t take  it any more is the message.

Interestingly, Silvio Berlusconi is back! You can’t keep a good man down. Convicted of income tax evasion and having sex with a 17 year old, he continues to hang in there. The word is he is maneuvering and pulling strings behind the scenes.

Enjoy your day!

9 comments on “DUI SOBRIETY CHECK POINT

  1. Who tortures ? We don’t. Enhanced interrogation has been proven to be effective and has been ruled as not torture. Enhanced interrogation has obtained good information, the capture of terrorists and has stopped attacks on this country. As if a little water in someones nose is worse than having a head cut off with a dull knife.
    Some would have us join with hillary and ’empathize’ with our terrorist enemies. Yep, that should really change their minds. Then we can all sit around the camp fire, hold hands and sing a rousing rendition of Kumbayah.

    Gas price, I think we’re making a dent. The mid-east dropping crude price in a feeble attempt to stop American drilling is telling. In this present phony economy it is raising kane with the DOW for the time being.

      • It is a “slippery slope” when we stoop to tactics we despise in others while holding our values high as that “Shining City Upon the Hill.” Especially when in that “Shining” City’s basement we torture and abuse.

        That said, all rhetoric and BS aside on all sides, we are in a war against terrorists and a cold war with China and Russia. They despise us and we them and each wishes only misfortune on the other. As our long bloody human history has taught, we will survive at all costs. Therefore, we use “enhance interrogation”, i.e. torture to get information we need against our enemies. They do the same against us. Ultimately, if we lose we die and vise versa. This is human nature.

        I just wish we would stop being so sacrosanct and admit we live in a dangerous, dirty world and we fight just as hard and dirty as our foes. Perfection lies in Heaven (wherever that is), not below on earth.

      • Patrick!!! Take the dark glasses off. Perhaps if you were to spend 24 hours being questioned as the detainees were, your thoughts might be different.
        end quote

        Really ! Only 24 hours ? Experience is a good teacher. I may wear dark sun glasses when needed but I never wear them with rose colored glass.

  2. Sobriety checkpoints have to be announced in every state because of a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the practice. I believe it was a Michigan case that was brought before the court.

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