Frightful Weather

One gets no sympathy when one complains about a cold front sweeping the Keys. These nasty weather "events" as meteorologists describe them sweep down from Canada on a predictable path and their severity across Florida can be anticipated by the damage they cause Up North. This one is reportedly setting records for snowfall in places not usually snowed under so for me to announce that I tremble at the thought of night time lows below 60 degrees (15C) does not, as it were, cut much ice with the parka crowd in the Great Snow Swept Suburbs.The fact remains I Do Not Like It, any more than the cyclist appeared not to. Yesterday I had to go into town briefly and leave the snug comfort of my home and while there I was caught by the approaching front. Rain squall followed rain squall and when I passed the ridiculous remains of a Fantasy Fest float in new Town the germ of an essay was born. WLRN-FM, Miami NPR (91.5 in thje Lower Keys) has been reporting a foot of rain fell Thursday night across south Florida and there were all sorts of thunderstorm, flooding and tornado watches in effect everywhere. Which all sounds rather dire by local standards but things will change soon enough.Anxious visitors monitor their weather information prior to arrival as though worrying about the weather will somehow secretly change it. I've heard a great deal of miraculous powers attributed to prayer but bending the weather gods to one's will is never one of them.The good news is that this stuff rarely lasts very long and indeed I write these words in the throes of rain and wind and black skies and thunder and all the rest of the drama, but by the time you read them the sun will be out, it will be cold (freezing cold if you count 70 degrees (21C) as zero, as many people do in the Keys) and the day will be bright and clear. The rain is thus nothing but a temporary impediment to enjoying the great outdoors.
Of course motorcycles were nowhere to be seen. Before the advent of Cheyenne (and my shingles, curse the pustules) I would have taken the Bonneville as rain is not a real impediment and hypothermia is not at all likely for the properly dressed rider. However even the moderately adverse weather kept all but the most desperate scooter riders of the road which made this bumper sticker smack slightly, and temporarily, of irony:
I stopped at the bank, dressed in my polo shirt and shorts and pondered the requirement for some people to drag out their jackets and rain gear at the first sign of weather. Lots of people love the cold and the promise of a front sends them cheering to their closets to pull out parks and furry boots and gloves and woolly hats. A modest rain jacket and sandals seems much the best compromise to me.With the south wind blowing I hoped for some wave action drama but instead I found a bunch of kite surfers doing their thing along the waterfront. This guy was tacking in the middle of the spume:
They were zipping along... ... fast enough that some drivers parked and braved the winds to watch:
The reef was doing it's job and keeping the waters flat even as twenty mile an hour winds blew steadily out of the south with gusts to thirty. The pink blob in the background is Key West By The Sea apartments:
My photographer's assistant was feeling cooped up and she knew this was her chance for a walk so she wanted me to take it and was looking longingly over at the greenery of the Bridle Path, inland from South Roosevelt Boulevard:Where the winds could be seen explaining where palm trees got their name. They are supposed to represent a human palm with fingers extended as you can see (?):
Roll on the sunshine as far as I am concerned...
...and I'll root around for some cold weather clothing if my wife forces me out of the house. I'm just glad I'm not facing snowdrifts in the driveway.

Free Money

The Monroe County School District is pondering whether or not to take one point five million dollars offered by Florida in the Race to the Top program. The idea is that the district will get the money to reward teachers who are best and better as a way to encourage excellence. Board member Steve Pribamsky is the only loud voice in favor, and rumor has it he may be leaving soon to inflict himself on St Lucie county in some, no doubt divisive, capacity. The sooner the better, if true. Everybody else is asking to see the small print and wondering what the State will demand in return for the handout. Of course there are time constraints and everything needs to be rushed. Union lawyers are leading the opposition at the moment because they fear Florida, the "right-too-work" state par excellence is looking to use this particular race to dole out money to weaken the teacher's union. And so it all becomes political.

This sort of thing may show us the way ahead. The Government hands out billions in untrammeled money to supporters and lobbyists and doles out with great parsimony and attention to detail the crumbs to the people who could make the best social use of the cash. I don't really see much in the way of social improvement across the US as a return on investment for the tax dollars handed over to banks. I feel the money could have done a lot more good if thrown away in different directions, directions that cannot pay lobbyists to encourage government support. As it is banks are not writing down their weak assets, and in claiming profitability are paying back portions of the Government relief money to free up their bonus schemes from oversight. However their profits are fake, their books are cooked, and the fundamental flaws in the economy are not being addressed. Still, the state is going to make sure it keeps a microscopic watch on the paltry millions it doles out to schools for use as bribes to break the unions. Get rid of the unions and thus get rid of job security, affordable health care and you help to create a yet weaker and more compliant workforce. It's not exactly Henry Ford's principle of paying workers enough to buy the products they build.

I have been reading about the Next Big Scare which is Sovereign Debt Default which is a fancy way of asking what happens when entire countries default on their debts, with the overriding fear of what happens when the US or China call it a day. Consider this: the industrialized country with the lowest deficit to GDP ratio is Canada at 79%. That's right, Canada with its single payer health care system, its government controlled drug prices, it's tightly regulated financial system is doing far better than the US (and Britain) at 95% or Japan at 275%. Australia, another socialist state (in the Tea bagger's scale of atrocious government practices) never even went into recession during the recent crisis. Does anyone think that regulating banks, controlling health care costs and offering workers a modicum of security makes for a weak economy?

One last thought: I found out, in reading about Japanese irritation over the US base on Okinawa, that the US has 47,000 military based in Japan. My question is simply: Why?

Cuban Coffee Queen

There is a new coffee shop in Key West, the 927th variation on well-worn theme; it so happens I rather like it. Location is the guarantor of success we are told by people who study good business practices, and the Cuban Coffee Queen is in a good location, between Waterfront Market and Turtle Kraals, in just the right, almost-waterfront place, to serve boaters and strollers of whom there are lots in this area.There is a little known illness in Key West that tends to afflict people after only a little while in town; travel becomes a chore. Imagine this: Fausto's grocery store has two outlets, one serving Old Town a block off Duval and another a whole mile away on White Street serving the rest of the metropolis. If they closed the White Street location no-one from New Town would bother to scoot five extra minutes to the Old Town location. People who live near Duval routinely decline to go to New Town based on it's distance (the whole island remember is four miles/six kilometers long...) and Stock Island (Mile Marker 5) is in the outer darkness of Deep Space. Thus it is that having a coffee shop and an inconvenience store (those little places with inconveniently high prices) every three blocks is a source of relief for travel-impaired Key Westers.
The Cuban Coffee Queen is more of a concept than a person as far as I can tell. He (clearly not a queen, quite masculine actually) made my coffee quickly and efficiently, while the woman is Hungarian(as I once overheard her telling a patron), which was no impediment to her pulling together a vast and delicious sandwich for me with equal attention to detail. They don't just make coffee either:
And for people confused by buchis (Cuban espresso shots), coladas (several buchis in a large cup to share in thimble sized cups usually) and con leches (liquid candy bars with lots of hot milk, drenching a buchi with sugar to taste) there is a handy, weatherproof explanation of the Cuban Coffee Queen's version: Not content with a sandwich list as long as your arm there is also the all-American blackboard:(I should have tried the mac and cheese now I think about it), and the other all-American invention is the voluntary tax deduction. The top dollar was the one I put in. If you can't afford the tip you can't afford the meal is a good rule to live by in expensive Key West.
They have a scooter for deliveries, this is just a piece of artwork, I'm pretty sure:The rooster is not real happily, though the large con leche is.

There are a couple of benches alongside the coffee shop, but what you see is what you get. All the food and drink comes out of here:The benches did not seem terribly appealing to me, as the food was large and deserved a table if I was to eat it cleanly. An uncharacteristic summer-type thunderstorm had blown over and the sun was shining again.

This was my six dollar sandwich, Cuban roast pork, a slice of ham, a slice of cheese, tomato, lettuce and fried onions. It was enough for two and it did not come in an un-ecological Styrofoam container for a change. My only problem was figuring out where to sit and eat this monster. I thought about Rest Beach, a long way away ( I suffer the travel disease too sometimes...) or possibly a bench alongside the harbor master's office at the nearby Key West Bight. Any sandwich would taste good overlooking the water.I ended up eating half and took the chips and candy cane with the other half to my wife in her classroom on my way out of town. She enjoyed it as much as I did.

That is, in fact half a sandwich!

Diagonally across the parking lot there is the convenience store called Caroline Street Market, but known informally locally as the Ay-rab Store(they are Bangladeshis that run it, but who's counting?) and they make their version of Cuban coffee:Close by there is Harpoon Harry's diner where you can get coffee with the infliction of TV whether you like that or not, and down the street a little further there is the Coffee Plantation that is rather more up market than a roadside hut. Lots of choices so one need never stagger too far to get a cup of coffee, whatever you end up calling it.

Copenhagen Addiction

They are gathered in Copenhagen, our leaders, and every time I read those words (I have no television reception) I think of the round tins filled with that nasty black goo some men like to chew, in the same way their counterparts in the Third World chew narcotic leaves to fend off the pain of reality. I dare say First World leaders at the Climate Change Conference in the Danish capital could do worse than chew tobacco from a tin, or chew coca leaves from a bush, as they ponder how to save us from ourselves. Or how to shoe horn us out of our Humvee addictions and into modest unmanly sedans like the little car on the left: I find it hard to believe that any useful thing will come from the chewing tobacco gathering in Denmark, where delegates are pondering whether to hold climate warming to 2C or 1.5C; I'm rather surprised they haven't passed a motion ordering the tides to comply. Already Third World delegates have walked out in protest, saying First World countries are refusing to give them enough money to offset carbon, those would the be the countries producing the most paying the countries producing the least in case you thought you misheard. I wonder what the Third World leaders are chewing to give them the illusion that they are going to make out like bandits from this conference? Coca leaves? The conference was billed as a way to get everyone on board with Anthropogenic (Human Caused) Global Warming, known for short as AGW, and to figure out ways to reduce carbon output by humans. What the conference is turning into instead, is a grand hand out by the First World to the Third. Which seems counter intuitive to me based simply on the Third World's record of not spending the money where it's supposed to go (Swiss banks are not supposed to benefit from charity donations to banana republic dictators). And if we in the world's most industrialized nation can't wean ourselves off our oil and carbon addictions, how can we expect a country filled with poverty to cut back whatever modest output of carbons they may be responsible for? How many African villagers does it take to produce as much CO2 as this Hummer traveling say, from Key West to Miami?
It beats me, but this Hummer, an overly obvious symbol of First World excess is not alone traveling on the Overseas Highway as you can see. And most of those other vehicles are single occupant rides too, producing their own carbon releases into the atmosphere. Yet back in Copenhagen... ...they are busy shooting each other down, blaming each other and reaching no useful consensus. Just like drug addicts in crack houses anywhere in the world. It's always somebody else's fault.

The thing is these are World Leaders I am talking about, the 21st century Moses leading us out of the wilderness of Sinai to a new promised land, a place of carbon neutrality, of modest consumptions, of local consumerism, of useful industrialization. To be an AGW skeptic is to be a heretic, is to be someone who refuses to face reality and by so doing puts the planet at risk. It's hard though not to be skeptical when one observes the actual behavior of our leaders, who preach change and give us business as usual, who can't curb their own excesses but expect their neighbors too do so. If they know the actual threat posed by Anthropogenic Global Warming and they cannot do anything meaningful about it, what are we the people supposed to do? Quit driving? Take cold showers to conserve propane? Turn off the air conditioning? What? Perhaps we should chew qat leaves:But there again despite the requirement that we disconnect belief from reality we are prohibited from consuming narcotics unless a major corporation somewhere makes an obscene profit off them. Reach for the beer and the Valium not the unprofitable leaves. AGW may very well be a clear and present danger to all of us but you wouldn't know it from the antics of our leaders. Peak Oil is going to double gas prices sooner or later and when it does presumably the cost of producing CO2 will get out of reach for many of us and perhaps then we will be forced to modify our behavior. Until then I guess we all of us in our different ways, remain addicted to our chew of choice, oil, coca, qat, carbon or just the pleasure of wielding meaningless power in a world gone mad.

Vignettes XXIX

Yesterday I spotted this sign on Stock Island's College Road and it is new to me:Since when has the formerly upscale, all floating dock, well protected from hurricanes, Sunset Marina felt the need to advertise it's presence? And with such a tacky, soda-infested banner ? Standards are dropping in parallel with the economy and I am glad I no longer live there!

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This sign made me laugh out loud. Painted on a stairway for an ascending patron the intent is clear, even if the execution allows the message to be read backward:I am easily amused.

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Not so amusing was street blockage on Angela Street alongside the cemetery. I understand that sometimes M'Bubba has an urgent communication for a neighbor and feels compelled to stop and share the news right there on the street without bothering to pull over and park. However for a commercial operation loading debris to fill the street like this seems rather...inconsiderate? Isn't that why God invented wheel barrows?

Unlike the poor sap in the PT Cruiser I am an able backer and I reversed fifty yards in one fell swoop back to Margaret Street and circled the block. It was actually as easy in the dog-laden Nissan as it might have been on the Bonneville.

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The general subject matter for this essay ("pointlessness") was prompted by the next picture. Unlike more accomplished photographers I use a small pocket Canon SX100 which not only uses double A batteries so I never run out of juice as they are available anywhere in an emergency, but it is also always to hand. Sometimes I take pictures just because, without knowing exactly why. That's why this blog is my diary and it is, in a sense, a repository for all my random thoughts. One thought that comes to mind frequently and is brought up in the Citizen's Voice even more frequently is why do people bother to blow leaves around? Obviously this guy is acting on orders, but the question remains.

It's another source of noise pollution (and CO2 let's not forget!) and serves no useful purpose. Like I said, I am easily amused and the idiocy of blowing leaves around while burning dead dinosaurs seems bizarre to me. Whatever happened to dust pans and brushes?

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We need Irondad to step in here. This scooter is so badly parked I can only assume (and make an ass of myself!) it is a practical piece of transportation for some cager, not an enthusiast of two wheels. I find it odd that "bikers" think that riding a scooter should somehow be beneath them, though in Key West where scooters are used as daily workhorses, more so than any other US city, most scooter riders would laugh if you called them "motorcyclists." And frequently it shows. You'd be amazed at the number of flip flop riders dragging their feet when in motion, riding gear is never in evidence and rules of the road are followed about as often by scooters as by cyclists. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just observing. I like that adults (with health insurance) don't have to wear helmets in Florida. I don't always wear one myself, and my wife hates wearing hers. However when it comes to parking I have a different take on it. Parking a scooter or a motorcycle is so simple I wonder why one rider thinks it's okay to dump the scooter (downhill, facing the curb no less) in such a way as to occupy the whole space. Anyone else wanting to use the abbreviated spot will need to move this machine to make room.

It's not labeled as scooter parking but anything bigger than a Smartfortwo wouldn't fit. Perhaps it is meant for sidecar parking if not scooters? I'm thinking it was the room left over on the street (Frances if you're interested) and the city hasn't got around to striping and labeling it yet.

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I've seen this car around town and the driver shows no particular aptitude for speed, and no obvious driving skills but the spoiler is firmly attached to make his little Hyundai more...what exactly? "Zoom zoom" was Mazda's advertising years ago when I had television. Maybe he heard it while in the womb and it left it's mark. Sometimes when I pull the Bonneville alongside cars with racing mufflers I make "zoom zoom" noises while sitting on my factory muffled Triumph. I hope it embarrasses them to hear the old man next to them " broom brooming" through his gray beard and pulling away from the light before they can even release the brake.

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And here we have a series of photographs to explain why the Honda Ruckus scooter should never have become as fashionable as it has. Saddlebags on a scooter??
Well yes, I took the second picture in the parking lot of Bank of America on Flagler and there they are, leather bags dangling off the 50cc Ruckus. The reason is the Ruckus has no luggage space at all on it's trellis frame:Vroom Vroom. However this (I think) Taiwan Golden Bee has under seat, weatherproof, lockable storage and an optional basket trimly secured to the rack. Convenience and style, says I. I live with saddlebags because I have to. My wife with her Vespa ET4 doesn't have to. That's the whole point of scootering.

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Bayside Landing in Big Coppitt is coming close to completion. This new housing development faces Highway One across from the Shell station (where I dropped the Bonneville last June, actually...)and they are putting up the last few homes there. It's been a long difficult road.

I am sure it comes as no surprise that some neighbors protested loudly about this Habitat For Humanity development appearing next door. They belonged apparently to either NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) or the BANANA schools of thought. That would be "Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything". Well, you can understand that, who wants poor people cluttering up the neighborhood? Happily a few of the candidates for housing here, bank tellers, clerks, government employees and the like, got overwhelmed by the cost of living in a crap economy and have left the Keys. Which I suppose will help to justify future attempts to keep working people from owning their own homes in the Keys. Slow them down enough and eventually they will give up. Aren't people great? (My neighbors, the sole nice couple on my street, said they have applications pending to quickly fill the available spaces).

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In case you get lost or panic stricken in the event of a hurricane, the Great State of Florida has put up some useful signs along the newly designated Highway Of National Importance.

Any other direction will get you drowned in short order, and it won't do your car much good either.

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I should applaud this tourist's determination to document his visit to the Keys, with his patient passenger slumped in the Sebring while he photographed Boca Chica bridge.

Instead I wonder why he doesn't just lift pictures from Key West Diary? She would be so much less impatient and he could do it from the comfort of his home.

The Vampire Squid

"The Great American Bubble Machine" is the title of an article by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone magazine that I have been meaning to read for a while. In it he describes how Goldman Sachs, "the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity" is creating investment bubbles and squeezing the life out of the world's economy for it's own profit. If you have read this article already, good for you but I only got around to it this afternoon on my sickbed and it is astonishing stuff. So at last I understand why petroleum prices shot up last year...Even though I already understood the CDO issues Taibbi does a masterful job of explaining them in language anyone can understand. (If reading the word "fucked" in a magazine article bothers you, stick your head back in the sand and don't click on the link. Please). I keep thinking about how we will, some of us, look back and wonder how we allowed the United States of America to devolve into a Third World Oligarchy. Click on the link or Google Matt Taibbi and Rolling Stone to read the seven pages of amazing exposes for yourselves. It's well worth it and a better horror story than any teen vampire flick at the movies. Though I do enjoy thinking of Goldman Sachs ("doing God's work") that way.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29127316/the_great_american_bubble_machine/1

An excerpt:

And here's the real punch line. After playing an intimate role in four historic bubble catastrophes, after helping $5 trillion in wealth disappear from the NASDAQ, after pawning off thousands of toxic mortgages on pensioners and cities, after helping to drive the price of gas up to $4 a gallon and to push 100 million people around the world into hunger, after securing tens of billions of taxpayer dollars through a series of bailouts overseen by its former CEO, what did Goldman Sachs give back to the people of the United States in 2008?

Fourteen million dollars.

That is what the firm paid in taxes in 2008, an effective tax rate of exactly one, read it, one percent. The bank paid out $10 billion in compensation and benefits that same year and made a profit of more than $2 billion — yet it paid the Treasury less than a third of what it forked over to CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who made $42.9 million last year.

How is this possible? According to Goldman's annual report, the low taxes are due in large part to changes in the bank's "geographic earnings mix." In other words, the bank moved its money around so that most of its earnings took place in foreign countries with low tax rates. Thanks to our completely fucked corporate tax system, companies like Goldman can ship their revenues offshore and defer taxes on those revenues indefinitely, even while they claim deductions upfront on that same untaxed income.

Click the link for more. I can't recommend it enough. There's stuff you know mixed in with stuff you don't and the mixture is entirely fascinating and toxic.