A week at the beach in Florida during TS Debbie
Tropical storm and hurricane season came early this year.  My family is in Englewood, Florida thiis week and there is no sunny beach.  As shown in the picture, the sun tries to peek through but it isn’t having much luck.
If you go to Florida in the summer or early fall, you risk a hurricane.  There is no avoiding it.  Outer Banks?  Same risk.  It just isn’t as far.  Does anyone have a favorite hurricane story?  I do but ……

101 Thoughts to “Open Thread…………………………………………Wednesday, June 27”

  1. Censored bybvbl

    @Cargosquid

    I’m curious about why you think Moe answered “Yes”. DH and I both took that quiz and scored 10 out of 10 and we didn’t answer “yes”. Undocumented immigrants who show up at emergency rooms won’t be turned away in emergencies but they won’t receive financial help to buy insurance. (It doesn’t solve the problem of people walking out on their bills though so it isn’t a perfect solution.)

  2. A Capital 4th is on. Too many soldiers with life altering injuries. Heart breaking.

    Other than Stand By Me and Kool and the gang… the music pretty much sucks. You know…I am no spring chicken. This is music my mother would like. Lots of geezer music and show tunes.

    When does geezer music turn into stuff I listened to? No fireworks yet. I hope Dallas isnt preempted.

  3. punchak

    At least the national anthem was sung by a pretty good basso
    who didn’t try to put any curlicues on it. Also, I thought the young
    black woman named Amber did a terrific job.
    Loved seeing a bit of Gene Kelly. Otherwise I agree that it was rather tame.

    Hope you had a good day anyway!

    1. yes it was. I just thought the music selections, for the most part, were a swing and a miss.

  4. @Censored bybvbl
    Um…I don’t THINK Moe answered “Yes.” He got 10 out of 10 right. If his questions were identical to mine, then he answered No and got it right. I answered Yes and got it wrong.

    Other than that I agree with you. It doesn’t solve the problem that this bill was written to solve. They still get treated and can still walk out on their bills. Anybody can.

  5. Steve Randolph

    M-H, You find today’s WaPo “Local Living” section interesting.
    The main article is on running a local blog.

    “After a while you realize you’re never going to make everyone happy.”

    “Two words: Thick Skin.”

    Sounds like being in local government.

    1. @Steve, either that or it just makes you mean. Thanks, I will try to locate it.

  6. I’m happy. See, this is me smiling.

  7. Morris Davis

    For those interested in an informed debate on health care reform, the Federation of American Scientists posted 2 very recent CRS reports that may be of useful, one addressing the ACA in general and another addressing the individual mandate. They are both pretty short (15 pages or less). You can find them at:

    http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/07/aca_crs.html

  8. @Cargosquid

    Will one of you all please replant the link for the quiz? I missed it.

    I am laughing too hard at Obama’s bus. Someone referred to it as THE BEAST. When I was a teenager, I had the misfortune offf having this ancient car to drive …one of those beetle back Plymouths. It was hideous and you could see daylight through the floor board. It was transportation…that’s about it. Talk about primative. Anyway, the boys I went to high school with nicknamed this hideous car, THE BEAST.

    A normal person would have been humiliated to drive it. I think maybe I was but it was the only way I had to get around and we lived about 4-5 miles out of the city limits….no bus service.

  9. @Moon-howler
    I’m a happy person.

    From Moe at #50: http://healthreform.kff.org/quizzes/health-reform-quiz.aspx

    Here’s a link to a short quiz by the Kaiser Foundation to test your knowledge of what’s in the health care reform law: http://healthreform.kff.org/quizzes/health-reform-quiz.aspx (I got 10 of 10 which is at the 99.6% level — doesn’t say as much about me as it does about the 99.6% who know less (although not knowing doesn’t stop them from having passionate opinions)).

  10. Oops, forgot that two links puts you into moderation. Sorry.

    1. It shouldn’t be doing that at 2. 3 is supposedly the magic death sentence. I don’t know what’s up/

      Sorry it keeps grabbing you Cargo. I have to admit, you do take it like a man, without any paranoia.

  11. Maybe its reading the reply @ as a link.

  12. The use of @ is doing it also…more than twice maybe?

    I will start paying more attention.

  13. I got 100% of the quiz and my answers weren’t all yes. Were they supposed to be?

  14. No… you did it right. I’m not sure what the questions above were about. I just posted the results of my test. I got 9 right and answered yes on the last question, getting it wrong.

    That’s all. I have no idea where Censored got that idea and question about me. Anyway, doesn’t matter.

  15. kelly_3406

    This is interesting. I have never subscribed to the various birther theories regarding Obama, but a private investigator in Ohio (who vets SSNs for her clients) has found major discrepancies with his social security number. If nothing else, it may cause trouble for him to be on the ballot in some states.

    http://mobile.wnd.com/2012/07/obamas-social-security-number-challenged/

    1. Kelly, do you really feel that is a reliable source? Isn’t that the World Network that I laugh at?

      Obama is president. All those who hate him have to live with it until they can get another person elected, or try.

  16. @Cargosquid

    My biggest problem was sorting out the misinformation I had heard from the the information I had read on the various sites I had gone to study it.

    I didn’t study it…I took the short course. That is a more honest assessment.

  17. It seems that a local blogger is afraid of having facts put on his blog. GL, what are you afraid of? Have you gotten that fruit and wine basket from Krystal yet?

    The dark screen is hiding in the shadows while it attacks the new City Attorney with misinformaton.

    Them facts is just so skeery.

  18. Pat Herve

    kelly – please check out this Snopes article – http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/ssn.asp – I would wonder how an average person would get the Presidents SSno?

  19. George S. Harris

    You can get a better handle on where and during what period a SSN was issued if you know the middle two numbers. Take a peek here: http://stevemorse.org/ssn/ssn.html

  20. According to the government’s definition, I’m a terrorist.

    Extreme Right-Wing: groups that believe that one’s personal and/or national “way of life” is under attack and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent (for some the threat is from a specific ethnic, racial, or religious group), and believe in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism. Groups may also be fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation), anti-global, suspicious of centralized federal authority, reverent of individual liberty, and believe in conspiracy theories that involve grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty.

    I wonder what DHS would think about these words: When in the Course of human events,….

    Of course, if you reverse all of the conditions listed…. Like the status quo/way things are going…. lack of preparedness,….. disregards patriotism, love of country, and believes international organizations should be in charge,…. is a “globalist”, …..loves centralized authority…. does not believe in individual liberty…. and doesn’t believe that there are threats to our national sovereignty and freedom….

    Who does THAT describe?

    1. Stop bastardizing the Declaration of Independence. It was a letter to a king, outling our grievances and declaring our independence. It wasn’t written as a famous document. It became a famous document.

      So you feel your way is under attack? How so?
      Which group is after you?
      are you particpating in survivalist activities now?
      Are you nationalistic?
      What is the conspiracy theory of the week?

      Great, now I have the FBI reading the blog. Thanks a lot, Cargo. Should I expect a swat team at my door to confiscate the last running laptop in the house?

  21. Also, do you think that they might remove “survivalist” from the descriptions after what happened in W. Va and DC?

    1. What did happen in W. VA and DC? Derecho? It happened in Virginia also. why can’t we be survivalists too? I think we call it preparedness. There is a difference in preparedness and survivalist mentality.

  22. The Sheriff must be out of town. Nothing new today. He is giving everyone a chance to speak. Lots of anonymous folks other than George who always signs his name.

    The Sheriff set up a survey. I wonder how long it will take him to get to the point of not giving a rat’s ass?

    The article in the Post yesterday said that to run a blog you had to be thick skinned.

    Honestly, what I found to be the most liberating was to own the blog rather than just work it. Why? I immediately threw those few people who were a pain in my ass off the blog. It is exhausting trying to deal with toads. For those who remember, Alanna tried to give everyone a chance at freedom of speech. so when Moonhowlings was born people threw that up at me. I laughed and said I never made that promise, Alanna did. This was moonhowlings and not antibvbl. Very liberating.

  23. Steve Randolph!! Where are our beautiful stomping running bulls today? Could it be too hot for bulls? Death to bears@@@@

  24. @Moon-howler
    You can be a survivalist too. I wonder what THEY are defining “survivalist” as? If you have supplies of water and food, alternative shelter, and firearms, and a plan…..that’s not survivalism…that’s summer in New Orleans.

    1. Define alternative shelter por favor.

  25. Anything from tents, RVS to other homes/camps etc.

    1. I guess relatives and friends also fit that.

      I would hate to be in a tent or RV during a hurricane.

  26. @Moon-howler
    The tent and RV are for after you drive out of the target area or after you climb out of the ruins of your house.

    1. How do you keep an RV from getting ruined also?

  27. It’s not a perfect plan….of course, if I was worried about damage, I’d take the RV and leave BEFORE the hurricane hit. I spent quite a few nights in Florida when Louisiana/Texas was the proclaimed target.

  28. AndyH

    After having run a blog for 6 years I find two things to be true:

    1. Anonymous posting allows a wide range of abuse to occur. I tried not to mind it for 5 years but it’s hard. I tried to stick to some manner of principle: I never wanted to delete a post – especially if it was critical of me. I’m not interested in an echo chamber. In retrospect, I should have been somewhat more flexible in this. Abuse is abuse.

    2. Never forget what you set out to accomplish by writing a blog. I started out writing mine for me. It morphed into a quasi-city news and policy outlet. That was a mistake and I should have stuck to stuff I wanted to talk about – which might have included city stuff – but I shouldn’t have allowed it to change mission.

    just my .02

    1. Yea, Andy’s here!!!! It’s always good to have you drop by. Thanks for adding yor opinion, it certainly is worthwhile. You have been doing this longer than I have.

      The fact that we are a spin off (I can’t think of a different word) of another blog makes us unique, for better or worse. We did have an oppourtunity for a make over without abandoning our original principles. I guess I am trying to say we evolved, hopefully into a place to discuss local, state and national issues. We are probably unique in that we are a blog made up mostly of moderates and conservatives–the mix being unique.

      To thy own self be true….Keep on blogging. You definitely run the classiest blog in town.

  29. Ray Beverage

    @Moon-howler

    Andy does run a class act….however, only here does one find their cerebral enlighment with an adaptation of The Great Bard! 🙂

    I’m kinda hoping August and the County Carryover brings another opportunity for such prose!

  30. I think the Sheriff is going to have to take over that one.

    The work of the bard was very time consuming and required so much consultation for facts. Oddly enough, my city sources are more “contained” than my county sources. I am more comfortable relying on them than I am my county sources. Often county sources have to be double and tripled verified.

    We shall see….Can’t the City drum up some more action? It is so much easier to deal with.

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