Going Batty
Florida Man
4/2/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man is upbeat today. So let’s talk about the new baseball bat called “The Torpedo” being used by the New York Yankees who are cranking out home runs at a record rate.
The bat is skinnier at the top end, with more wood in the middle around the label, like Louisville Slugger, Easton, Mizuno and closer to the batter's hands. It really looks more like a bowling pin than a torpedo, but torpedo is certainly more dramatic.
Of course, it’s controversial because the Yankees are the team using them and seemingly having great success. But whatever bat you’re using, wood, metal, torpedo shaped or any other shape you have to have the hand-eye coordination to hit a ball coming at you at 100 mph.
The bat was designed by a guy who trained at MIT but it could have been anyone and why nobody thought of it before is a mystery. I don’t know what the guy’s expertise is but he made a piece of equipment that seems to improve a batter’s chance of getting a hit. They start at $199 on line if you’re still playing ball.
In last weekends three games the Yankees had 15 home runs, nine in one game, and scored 36 total runs against the Milwaukee Brewers. The torpedoes were used by several players who hit homers.
The league says the bats are perfectly legal but the public, as you might expect, has mixed opinions about the torpedo, especially the baseball purists. Increasing the size of the sweet spot may work because the batter thinks he’s going to make more contact. A sort of wooden placebo.
Baseball’s major leagues Rule 1.10(a) states: “The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.” Most players use bats made of ash that are 32 inches to 34 inches in length because they are easier to swing.
So, despite the fact that the new bats look bigger than 2.61 inches in diameter they must not be. The designer worked with a number of MLB's 41 approved bat makers, 41?, to make the idea real. Spec bats were given model numbers that start with BP for bowling pin, though he admits that "torpedo sounds kind of cooler."
At any rate, Aaron Judge, the Yanks big bomber, hit three homers in the first game and one in the second using his regular old bat. He is on pace to hit 162 home runs this year. He’s going to be one tired slugger.
As one of the Brewers said of the new bat after the weekends games, “It ain’t the wand it’s the magician.” Pretty savvy quote for a ball player.
Enjoy the season and “Go Yankees.”
Florida Man
4/1/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man may be a little slow to realize that the billionaires are telling us lowly plebes how to live. The Musks and others have never done the dishes or taken out the trash or wiped their own asses so how do they know what life is really all about.
For example, the Muskrat is like the old lady who lived in a shoe and had so many children she didn’t know what to do. He has an unknown number of children who he couldn’t call by name but he does know what to do because he has the money to do it including the money to have his women use IVF to get pregnant.
What a guy, eh?
So randomly firing thousands of government workers has no meaning for him or his reputed boss. Randomly arresting and deporting a few thousand or so supposed illegals has no meaning either. Neither does the law.
Last week, a man in a black hoodie stopped Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk on the street in Somerville, Massachusetts. She tried to walk away, but he grabbed her. She screamed, and it seemed like help was coming.
But the help was from masked men and they came to help the hoodie guy not her. They took Ozturk’s backpack, grabbed her cellphone. and handcuffed her. “We’re the police,” they said.
A bystander saw the abduction and said, “Why are you hiding your faces?” No answer from the brave enforcers of the felon’s law. I’m surprised they didn’t arrest him for talking.
Ozturk, is a Turkish citizen in the U.S. on a student visa. She was flown to an ICE “processing center” somewhere in Louisiana. The State Department has canceled her visa and she will undoubtedly be deported to who knows where.
The charge: Pro-Hamas activity based on an editorial she co-wrote last year for the Tufts student paper criticizing the war in Gaza. She is apparently being punished for speech the Nazis don’t like. They of such ardent, but fake, support for Israel.
And since when Is overstaying a visa enough to get you thrown in prison? Why not just escort the person to the airport and put them on a plane home?
But this is of a piece with the the admin’s claims that Columbia and Harvard could lose federal grants because they failed to stop anti-semitism on campus. The gov’s hypocrisy is limitless.
The brilliant Sec. of State Marco Rubio said Ozturk’s visa was revoked because she was part of a group that caused “a ruckus” on campus. I caused a lot of ruckus on campus but I was always rescued by friends before the cops got there.
Rubio on Ozturk: “We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses.” He said 300 other visas also had been revoked for unknown reasons.
Arresting people on the street who have not committed a crime is Germany in 1939. Dissent is now a crime in this country.The sharks see blood in the water. Keep your ID with you at all times.
Fact or Fiction
3/31/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man is far from a philosopher. I’m just a writer. I wrote non-fiction books and reported on real things when they happened for a daily newspaper. I just finished Arthur Miller’s 2002 play, Resurrection Blues, and despite having worked in the "real" world, it raises questions in my mind about what is true and real and what we imagine.
It’s a short work about an unnamed South American country run by a General, and the leader of rebels who want to overthrow the oppressive military government.
We’ve all seen this story many times in history but the twist here is that the suspected guerrilla leader is thought to be Christ by the peasants in the mountains though they call him Ralph and later Charlie. Ralph’s credo is “Just don’t do bad things.” Not bad as credos go. I found myself grinning then chuckling at the black humor of Miller’s portrayal of the inherent evil in the way politicians manipulate poor people and the cynicism of the mass media.
The plot revolves around the attempt by the leader of the country’s ruling junta to capture Ralph and crucify him for his crimes, a method of execution common in that country. A film company is hired to shoot the crucification and sell it to advertisers who expect to attract millions of viewers worldwide and advertise consumer products. Felix, the military dictator sells the rights for $25 million.
Ralph is never seen as a human in the play only as an occasional blinding light. It’s unknown whether Ralph is real or imaginary.
The play is as much a damnation of television as it is of dictatorship.
Miller, in an interview said, “The more I observed the United States the crazier it all seemed and the more absurd it all seemed, the more tragic.” Miller said he chose to portray television as an exploiter and a trivializer of everything including a crucifixtion. “The only way to approach it is to ridicule it which is more than it deserves,” he said.
He has less to say about politicians and dictatorships. But he shows how money controls even the cruelest of rulers.
Anyway, Felix captures Ralph, at least he thinks he does, but somehow Ralph escapes by walking through a wall. Henri, the philosopher in the play says, “I have the feeling he has never been in the cell.”
Henri then compares the ephemeral Ralph to the Jews in Egypt. “There are lots of images of the peoples the Egyptians conquered but little of the Jews. Then one day it struck me that the whole story of the Jews in Egypt may have simply been a poem. Ancient peoples saw no difference between a description of marvels and what we call reality. For them the description was the reality.”
Skip, the producer of the TV crucification then says, “Are you telling me Ralph doesn’t exist?” And Felix says, “That depends on what you mean by exist. He certainly exists in the mind of the poor peasant. For the General his death is important.”
But for Miller he is only a character in his play.
That brings me back to what is true and what is imagined.
Billions of people throughout history have believed in a supreme being, a creator, an avenger, an all knowing figure, etc.
For me, as I’ve said before, the Bible and the Torah are good novels written by hundreds of people, probably all men, over at least 2,000 years. Every one of those writers, like me, have had their own opinions and written their own interpretations into the books.
So is what they wrote real? Is some of it? Or is some or most of it or even all of it imaginary?
Bye Bye History
Florida Man
3/29/2025
Copyright©️
As part of the re-writing history program at the Oval Office University there is a new executive order that is certainly going to make American great again.
The felon has ordered the removal of “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.” Get those goddamned bonobos out of there. I’m sure he doesn’t know that bonobos and chimpanzees are the closest living relatives of humans.
Of course the target is information about the history of racism, civil rights, gay and transgender rights and in general anything that isn’t about straight white Christian muricans.
There’s more: ”The prior administration pushed a divisive ideology that reconstrued (sic) America’s promotion of liberty as fundamentally flawed, infecting revered institutions like the Smithsonian and national parks with false narratives,” the order says.
False narratives? Those monuments of southern civil war seditionists like Robert E. Lee will be restored because their removal helped “perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.” No matter that Lee and others tried to overthrown the lawful government and killed tens of thousands of their fellow Americans.
References to Jackie Robinson, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Enola Gay and the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima are not real muricans and guess what, they are all minorities. The statues to be restored are all of white men who had said Black people were not American citizens and kept them enslaved.
Langston Hughes, the poet, novelist and playwright who wrote about Black life in America from the 1920s through the 1960s, had this to say in his poem “Let America Be America Again.”
”Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one’s own greed.”
There is much more of this poem and it’s worth Googleing. Hughes died in 1967. How did he know these people in charge before they even appeared on the scene. He didn’t, but he knew the people just like them who had come before this current batch of Nazis. It isn’t Make America Great Again and never has been for them. It’s Make America White and Christian Again.
Can’t you feel it in your blood, in your soul. Can’t you feel the world that Hughes was writing about coming back in force.
What A Gang
Florida Man
3/28/ 2025
afriedberg1@mac. com
Copyright©️
“Now, Donnie, remember not to push that red button,” the drunk rapist told the felon. “Ok, but can’t I push it just once Pettie?” Donnie asked. “No, don’t touch it,” the incompetent told the incompetent.
That’s among Florida Man’s big fears with the dumb and inexperienced bumblers in charge.
Remember Jimmy Breslin’s 1969 novel,The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight? Well, that these creeps not only can’t shoot straight, they lie about their misses. It’s long past time for the fraudster to give up on the lessons he learned so well from Roy Cohn, he attorney and guru, in the 1960s.
You may remember Cohn as a gay man who persecuted gays out of government jobs in the 1950s. He was a bully just like the apprentice who learned at his feet. Cohn died of AIDS in 1986 while insisting he had liver cancer. He also denied that he was gay despite taking his lovers to public events and admitting he slept with men because he was powerful and “homosexuals are men who have zero clout.”
He taught the fraudster the principle of “deny, deny, deny.” If someone wrote a song about these people that would be the chorus. To them accountability means someone good with numbers.
We've learned that their plan to attack the Houthis in Yemen was discussed on Signal, a publicly available messaging app, and one of the invitees, mistakenly, was Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic magazine.
The Houthis as you all know, but I doubt the felon knows, are an anti-government movement that opposes the U.S. and Israel and has been firing missiles at ships in the Red Sea for more than a year. We’ve been bombing them for months and they continue to fire on the ships.
Being a journalist, Goldberg published the details of the meeting and the security breach has become a total embarrassment for the drunk Sec Def and other high level people in the intelligence industry. The Sec has gotten red-in-the-face angry with reporters for asking him questions about the slip up that could have cost American lives, the most precious lives on earth. That’s really what we need. An angry drunk in charge of the military.
Of course, Goldberg, who served in the Israeli army, is the scapegoat in this. It’s his fault they invited him to this semi-public meeting. He was immediately attacked as an incompetent journalist running a failing magazine.
The felon’s take is the usual deep state working against him. He said at first that he didn’t even know about the meeting and all the rest is fake news. It’s the predictable, “I didn’t do nothin’. Move along. There’s nothing to see here.”
I don’t know if it’s hypocrisy or ignorance or a combination but this is another illustration of the way Roy Cohn’s influence lives in the mind of the twice-impeached criminal. Of course, the people in charge of this fiasco are the people he says are the best and brightest, an appellation that is overused.
Note: Thanks to everyone for your warm comments about Eric and me in yesterday’s post.
Careful What You Read and Where
Florida Man
3/26/2025
Copyright©️
Today’s headline: Holden Caulfied, a fictional character we all met in high school in Catcher In the Rye is being run our of Texas.
State lawmakers (if by lawmakers you mean frightened children) are considering a bill that would make it a jailable crime to teach J. D. Salinger’s classic coming of age novel.
When we were teens we identified with Holden because he is a discontented kid who disdains authority and is unconcerned about his future. Maybe identified isn’t the right word. In my case at least, I think I envied him because I did respected authority too much.
The reason for outlawing the book: sexually explicit content. Now, I don’t remember any sex in the book but I looked it up and there is sex in the context of the 1950s. Holden is very interested in sex, weren’t we all, and he goes to a prostitute but ends up talking to her. How freaking sexy can you get.
Anyway, teachers and librarians face up to 10 years behind bars for providing the book to students let alone teaching about it. It used to matter in Texas if the book was considered to have “educational value or literary merit” but that doesn’t matter any more.
Does this prevent parents from giving the books to their kids? Don’t know. But if they do they could be turned in by a neighbor whose son Timmy told her that Jimmy got this book about sex but I couldn’t read it because I never learned how.
Here’s something laughable about the law. There is an exception. If the adult providing the “sexually explicit content” is married to the child, which is legal in Texas. Still, a judge has to approve.
So how does that go? Man: “Judge, I gave Betty a dirty book. Is that okay.” Judge: “I don’t know. I’ll have to read it first and I’ll need to talk to Betty privately in my chambers where I keep my etchings.”
Of course, Holden isn’t the only one under attack. Odysseus from The Odyssey, John from Brave New World, R.P. McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and many more are in the sights of these book burners.
But don’t blame just Texas. Indiana, Alabama and Arkansas have similar laws.
And here’s one more scary thing. The Texas senator sponsoring this bill, when is isn’t masterbating while watching TV cartoons, also is promoting one that sets up boards of parents and community members to decide which books should be read by their kids. What could possibly go wrong with that?
My parents only went to parent/teacher meetings to see if I was doing okay. They didn’t care what was in the school library or what I was reading. And I think they were damned good parents.
So This Is Health
Florida Man
3/25/2025
Copyright©️
Ever heard of the MAHA Moms? I haven’t either but they are big with the crazy man who is Sec. of Health. You may remember RFKJr. as the man with the dead bear in his trunk but the MAHAs, Make America Healthy Again, are just more proof that the totally incompetent people now running the government can be influenced by even less experienced and less competent people.
Anyway, the moms met with nutso in the White House recently to discuss nutrition and the worm in Jr.’s brain. Well, maybe not the worm but other things like infant formula which the mom’s claim is better in Europe. It may be. Many things are. So, I’m sure Jr. will be impressed.
He, it seems, is open to any thinking that is contrary to medical research. He’s a big promoter of Vitamin A as a treatment for measles and beef tallow instead of oil for frying even though cardiologists say it’s risky for the heart.
He says he’s following the science,” said Dr. Wallter Willett, an expert in nutrition research at Harvard. “If you look at the scientific evidence, that doesn’t take you to the conclusion that beef tallow is better than seed oils.”
Frankly, beef fat sounds tasty to me but I like fried a lot.
The anti-vaxxer has announced to food executives that “There’s a new sheriff in town.” I suppose that will frighten some of them enough to load their products with Vitamin A.
But public health experts have more serious concerns about his support of the Muskrat’s firing spree.
“I think he has to take the blame for it. He’s destroying science in America,” Willett said.
Some of Kennedy’s ideas about public health are just plain wrong experts say, but what do they know. He has said measles shots wear off therefore older people are unvaxxed.
Of course the CDC says measles, mumps, rubella vaccines protect people for life. An infectious disease doc at Vanderbilt U. said “The data continue to support that measles vaccine protects the vast majority of people lifelong.”
The NYT reported that after the MAHA Moms meeting, the White House posted video of Mr. Kennedy stumbling over how to pronounce food ingredients like riboflavin.
Here’s the question for me and I’m not stumbling. Will a vaccine, or eating beef tallow, or anything protect us from Jr.?
Things Do Get Worse
Florida Man
3/24/2025
Copyright©️
The words “equality” and “equity” are being expunged from the dictionary. Well, not officially, not yet.
It started with DEI and has moved swiftly to civil rights protections. This time it’s the Department of Homeland Security cutting three offices that oversee civil rights protections because they are “impeding immigration enforcement.”
That is, they are protecting the rights of immigrants. A spox for the agency says they will still be protecting people but they just won’t have anybody doing it. More of the doublespeak of the felon’s hence people.
There also was an ombudsman in charge of making sure detention facilities are safe an humane. Gone. In all, more than 100 workers have been laid off in these offices.
Try this for a logical explanation: “These offices have obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining DHS’s mission,” the spox said. “Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.“
So how are those deportations going?
A non-prorfit tracking flights out says there have been 258 as of March 22, about the same number during a similar period of the Biden aministration. Of course, in line with their humane efforts, many deportees are being flown to countries other than their own. So, I may be from Guatemala but I end up in Angola. I can’t imagine how that feels, no language, relatives, no countrymen.
In another humanitarian move a contract to provide legal aid to children who have come here without a parent of guardian has been terminated. Kids will now have to work their way through the legal system by themselves. It’s okay though because it only effects 26,000 kids under 18.
It’s not easy to keep up with the tragedies of fired workers, deported migrants and abandoned kids. Thousands of lives are being destroyed willy-nilly. Forget the importance of the job and the years of loyal service, forget that these are real people.
And don’t forget their coming for Social Security and Medicaid. We’re going to have to find our canes and walkers and oil up our wheelchairs because street demonstrations may be the only answer.
A Couple of Pet Peeves
Florida Man
3/23/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man doesn’t dream much but when I do it’s often about things I’ve spent the night thinking and worrying about that don’I even exist.
Like last night, it was scrolling endlessly through the iPhone screens trying to find something that I knew wasn’t there. Fortunately, when I wake up I only remember the bare outlines of my fruitless and annoying efforts.
And talk about annoying. Sideline sports reporters have been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. They are mostly young women trying to get a start in a man’s world and some are even veterans at it. It’s a humiliating job though sometimes they do get 20 or 30 seconds camera time for their demo reel.
“Coach, you’re down 26 points with 12 seconds left. How are you going to win this game? Well, Diane, I think we’ll just have to throw in the damn towel, don’t you?.” “Thanks a lot coach. Back to you guys in the booth.”
Now tell me how that is not only a waste of time for everybody but how it isn’t demeaning to everybody as well.
And while I'm talking about pet peeves here’s another big one.
It's authors, like Lee Child, who have Superman vision. Which, by the way, Superman doesn’t use very often in the old movie serials unless he can’t use it because it doesn’t work through lead.
Anyway, in observations across a crowded room he analyzes, “His hands are calloused, probably a farmer or a weightlifter. His eyes are a a cloudy grey but they aren’t very good because he missed the carrot strips and put his finger in the ranch dressing. He looks young, maybe 20 or 25 but he might have been older because I could hear him expounding on Shakespeare, Milton and Yogi Berra to a group of attentive listeners. He laughed heartily at his own jokes and had a twinkle in his cloudy eyes.”
So I asked Child to take a look at a video I made of me across a crowded room and describe what he saw.
Here’s his description. “He appears to be in his mid-70s and looks good for his age,” Child wrote. “He’s not tall but has a solid build, not fat, not thin, sturdy. He has deep blue beautiful eyes, naturally set in a face that is lined but not as old as he is. He has an open and inquisitive face. He has gray-white hair cut short but not too short. He’s clean shaven, but not too clean shaven, and casually dressed, blue jeans, light-weight long-sleeve shirt, Sketchers sneakers. He walks with an unsteady gait but seems to get around and carries himself in an eighty-nine degree upright position. He speaks well, intelligently, uses words of two syllables and has an accent that sounds like Jasper County, Arizona.”
v“Right on,” I wrote back, “except you left out the calloused hands of a farmer, obviously well-read with a keen sense of humor and likes Louisiana Hot Sauce.”
Enough rambling for a cloudy morning in South Florida. I have more pet peeves to share later. Maybe tomorrow I can get back to the depressing stuff you expect from me.
Is It Really That Bad?
Florida Man
3/22/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man has been thinking about this great divide in American society. I know it exists but it’s below the surface in most of our daily lives. We don’t see it. At least I don’t.
Take yesterday. Ruthie said she was offered a cup of Turkish coffee while doing a story the other day in Odessa, Texas. Yes, there are Turks in Odessa.
So I decided to find a a store with Turkish products in Fort Lauderdale. Turns out there are several so I picked one. It was a restaurant rather than a grocery store so I bought a Turkish Pide, a pizza-like dough with mushroom filling, from a very pleasant and friendly young man who spoke good English and good Turkish. The pide was okay and the place was busy with Turkish men watching a soccer match on TV and cheering at 2 in the afternoon. The clerk gave me the name of a Turkish market.
The restaurant is right across the street from a deli that has very good bagel and herring filets with onions and cream sauce. Everyone there was very friendly including the people in line to pay.
On to the Aslan Bazaar. Nice store and Tommy, the clerk/owner was very helpful. He picked out the kind of coffee he said I needed and one of those little Turkish pots to make it in. I also got a jar of some young gerkins. I never knew gerkins were young or old. I also bought and some halvah. My dad loved halvah. I never liked it as a kid but it’s good now.
This morning at B&B we talked about the beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty. People were peppy talking about it but frankly I don’t get it. What is holiness and godliness anyway? The rabbi said it means to separate or cut off the things of daily life and celebrate God on the sabbath. He also said it meant peace with ourselves. I’ll buy that part. We all enjoyed the bagels and lox and chatted afterwards. Anyway, my point here is that if you go out on the street or look out your window you aren’t likely to find that great divide that we hear about every day. That's the one with people holding knives at each others throats, shooting each other on the freeway and cutting in line in front of you at Burger King.
I’m not sure that the divide is between people as much as it is between government and the people.The radiation from D.C. spreads over all over us like a miasma and the media is all for it because it makes for headlines and stories. I’ve been there. I know how that is. It’s “Hey buddy. You hiding under your desk. Go out and get us a story with pictures. We need it for the weekend.”
So is the divide manufactured by the media? I don’t think entirely but I do think a good big of it is being sold by newspapers and TV. I think this is pretty upbeat for Florida Man. I’m trying hard to get away from the miasma.
The Drama of the Ears
Florida Man
3/20/2025
Copyright©️
Here’s another episode on Florida Man’s ear drama. It’s not really dramatic, I’m just trying to create some drama around earwax, a little discussed dinnertime subject that deserves more attention.
I’m pretty sure most of you have had it. It’s another one of those aging things that you never heard of until the doc says, “That’s just an aging thing.” Which is better than him saying, “Wow, I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Anyway, those of you who have been following the story closely remember that in a previous episode I was strapped Into a chair and spun around and masked up and told to follow the red dot with my eyes. I also turned down the chance to be tested for food allergies and have a camera put down my throat to look for acid reflux.
Now it’s on to more tests that I’m turning down. This is like taking your car in for an oil change and being told you need a new front axel, a new transmission and your knewton valve is totally out of whack. Thanks to Kevin for inventing the knewton valve.
The new suggested tests include an MRI ($850) to see how bad my sinuses are, a C-T Scan ($2,000) to see if I have fluid on my brain that has to be drained by drilling a hole in my head, and a second chance to have my food allergies removed. The doc is also recommending physical therapy and some anti-biotic pills for something. It’s all covered by insurance but there is something wrong here.
Really. I don’t care if I have allergies or rotten sinuses or fluid. If those things are going to kill me it’s not going to be instant. I can live with them. If you get another 30 minutes of life out of these procedures that’s fine, but you just don’t know when that 30 minutes is going to be.
Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not accusing anybody of anything but I’m just sayin’ it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the doc, who seems like a nice guy as do all con men, is running a Medicare scam? This is Florida after all, where Medicare scams were born.
My friend Karen goes to the same guy and he ran some of the same tests on her. So counting whatever he charges for visits and the cost of tests it comes out to a pretty penny, a term that goes back to the 16th century.
A little more about this doc and his office. I waited 20 minutes to get into an exam room. Another 20 minutes to get a glimpse of the him when he stuck his head in the room to say hello. I said, “I’ve been here 40 minutes let’s get going.” He said, “Forty-five minutes is okay,” and disappeared. It was another 15 before he showed again.
Before I left I told him his office furniture and decor was 1970s shabby, his computers were 150 years old in tech years, the charts on his wall looked like Leonardo’s work and the faded paint was not attractive. I added that “It doesn’t look very professional.”
He seemed surprised. I guess he thought the unmatched chairs with badly worn seats in the waiting room, exam chairs that look like they came second hand from a dentist’s office, the duct tape on an exam table and a bathroom that looked dirty and smelled worse is okay, like waiting 45 to be seen. There may be more on this later, but I hope I don’t have to vent again, though it is cathartic.
No Raise
Florida Man
3/19/2025
Copyright©️
The twice-impeached liar in the White House is always looking out for the welfare of Joe Six-Pack and the rest of his wage-earning cult. He has a real warm feeling for the working class. They should be thankful they voted for him.
To help them, on Tuesday he revoked a Biden order that would have increased the minimum wage for federal contractors to $17.75 an hour from $15.00. This cheats 300,000 construction workers, electricians, plumbers and other wage slaves out of a substantial raise. The Federal minimum wage is stuck at $7.25 and hour. Try and live on that.
Many of these contractor jobs are in low-wage service jobs like cleaning government buildings and working in cafeterias or restaurants in federal buildings. The raises were negotiated by the Service Employees Union (SEIU). They argued that the federal government shouldn’t underwrite poverty jobs.
In the incredible twisted logic of the cretin and his servants this move will somehow benefit workers. Since he doesn’t know what real work is, or what $110 a week more in the pay envelope means, it’s all immaterial to him. To the worker it pays bills.
He said, “This will restore common sense and unleash the potential of American citizens.” Tell me what the freaking hell that means. Wait. I think I can figure it out. It means lower pay for workers and unleashes their potential.
“This is yet another anti-worker move from an administration that promised to deliver jobs with higher wages, lower the cost of eggs and improve our economy for working families,” said April Verrett, president of the Service Employees Union. “This executive order does none of that. Instead, it makes life harder for hundreds of thousands of hard-working Americans who keep our government running behind the scenes in good and bad times,” she said.
The “very stable genius” has flip-flopped repeatedly on the issue of raising the minimum wage. Sometimes he's for it and then he isn't. He once said he wanted to raise it and not raise in the same garbled mouthful..
The minimum wage started in 1938 at $.25 and hour which is more than $5.00 today but it has never been a living wage according to economists. I worked for that $2.00 a day rate in high school but of course I as living at home so it was all gravy.
When I worked as a copy boy for the NYT in 1958 I was earning a barely livable $45 a week. That’s almost $500 a week today and still not enough to live in a city and take care of a family.
So, the minimum wage really is a minimum. And the billionaires want to keep it that way. I say again, I hope the cult is glad they voted for the felon.
Where Are You Robin Hood?
Florida Man
3/18/2025
Copyright©️
Don’t ask me why, but Florida Man was, for the first time, reading Martin Luther’s 95 Theses yesterday. You know how suddenly something pops into your head and thanks to the innertubes you get satisfaction in a few clicks.
That’s how I thought to look at the theses. It just popped in. Truthfully most of the 95 are way to religious for me but one thing stuck out.
It’s the concept of indulgence. Luther says, “Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who buys indulgences.”
Further he says, “Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives his money for indulgences, does not buy papal indulgences but God's wrath.”
Just sayin’, I think God may be wasting his wrath on people who eat too much chocolate or buy a Corvette rather than pouring it down on people who are taking from the needy to give to the indulgers.
Of course, I’m referring to the really big indulgers, the felon and his congressional followers who are taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
They are going to cut Medicaid and use the savings to give a tax cut to the 1 percent for whom it’s a mere bagatelle, something of little or no importance, a trifle. Why a billionaire needs a tax cut has been a mystery to me ever since I knew what billionaire and tax cut meant.
The thieves have already destroyed USAID which in turn is destroying lives of the poor all over the world. The aid feeds the hungry, supplies medicine and medical supplies to millions, builds schools and provides disaster relief. All of this amounts to half a percent of the federal budget. Any one of these billionaires could fund USAID with pocket change.
The agency made a lot of friends for this country and we certainly need all the friends we can get. When Canadians boo our national anthem you know you’re in trouble.
The Department of Education that gives grants, loans and other assistance to 4,400 public schools serving 2.8 million kids is also on the way to the trash heap. Take from the poor and give to the rich.
A food bank in North Carolina that serves 34 counties has had it funds cut to zero. Pubic radio in the state says that $11 million that would go directly to farmers to buy fresh food to distribute is gone. I’ve volunteered at food banks and I know the are grateful for the relative pittance they get. They need the lettuce, potatoes, fruit and canned goods. They aren’t begging. They just need help.Take from the poor and give to the rich.
Martin Luther said, “Indulgence is doing something you enjoy even if it has negative consequences.” He certainly nailed these incredible un-Christians who always put on a God fearing front. They clearly enjoy their work hurting people. Just take another look at the Muskrat in his Nazi garb wielding a chainsaw and laughing his head off. Consequences be damned.
How incredibly mean it is to take food out of the mouths of the poor, to take minimal medical care away and give the money to the rich so they can hire another crew member for their yacht.
Where is Robin Hood when we need him?
Courage
Florida Man
3/16/2025
Copyright©️
Bagels&Bible often gives Florida Man the idea for a post.
Saturday morning’s session was one of those. We moved from the reading of the parashah, the weekly portion of the Torah, to today’s crazy world. Something I wish the rabbi would do more often but I think he wants to stay away from the open discussion of politics.
The Torah portion dealt with bravery and resistance in the face of wrong and emphasized love, compassion and strength. The rabbi brought the ancient writings up to the present with the Mahmoud Khalil case.
Khalil, a pro-Palestinian leader of the anti-Israel, anti-semitic demonstrations at Columbia U. In New York has been arrested by ICE and faces deportation because of his role in the often violent protests. He has a green card which makes him a legal resident and hasn’t yet been charged with a crime. It’s a PR move like so much of the other garbage the felon is throwing at the wall.
But deporting a legal resident is different. That’s us. We can become fair game. The Supreme Court has ruled that "once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he become invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within borders."
There are limits to green card protection. You can get kicked out if you’ve committed a violent crime, marriage fraud or have abused controlled substances. The violator goes to court and if convicted usually serves time in the U.S. and could face removal after that.
The law says nothing about demonstrating in a lawful fashion and exercising your right of free speech. But here we are. Waving signs in front of a Tesla car lot could get us arrested. We are nearing or have already passed the point of no return. The felon’s tiny hands are filthy with violations of the Constitution.
Back to the Kahlil case.
Columbia Professor Shai Davidai who is Jewish and an advocate for Israel opposes the demos which he describes as Hamas propaganda. Nevertheless, he says Khalil deserves a fair trial with media coverage, sees this as an “opportunity to balance accountability with proper judicial proceedings” and is calling for due process and transparency.
How does this relate to Sunday’s B&B?
Well, Davidai. 41, an assistant professor of business, is taking a brave and principled stand against an oppressive state. That’s a statement that I didn’t think I’d be applying in the U.S. Not only is Columbia being penalized by the twice-impeached liar but Davidai is Jewish and a faculty member and in jeopardy.
“While I strongly disagree with Khalil’s actions, I refuse to strip him or his wife of their humanity,” Davidai said. Khalil’s potential deportation is a direct consequence of his actions, he said.
But Davidai also said, “This is not about Khalil. He is neither a hero nor a villain. This isn’t about free speech. It’s about respecting and upholding the rule of law.”
Strength, courage and compassion. Shai Davidai is leading. We’re going to need to follow his example.
More Voodoo Medicine
Florida Man
3/15/2025
Copyright©️
I’m not going to turn this into a medical journal but for the last ten days I’ve been caught in the maelstrom of doctors appointment and I ran into another incident of voodoo medicine yesterday morning.
This is Florida Man’s fourth visit to a doc I just wanted to clean the wax out of my ears. He says, “I’m a thorough guy. I’m an ENT and I’m going to ear, nose and throat you for all it’s worth.” That’s not exactly what he said but that was his meaning and what’s happening. Of course, I could say no and I did to an allergy test on Tuesday.
But anyway, I went yesterday for a “rotary audio.” I sat in a barber-like chair and got strapped in. The tech slipped a mask over my head and put on a black cover over it so I was blindfolded. Then I was circled right for one minute at very low speed, eyes open, and then left for a minute. That was it. I was in and out in 10 minutes.
I asked the tech what this little activity proves and in typical informative fashion he said, “It checks the way your eyes react to the motion. It’s recorded and the doctor will interpret it for you.” I said, “I know you know the results so tell me.” He said, “I really don’t. I didn’t learn that.” Me either because it’s voodoo.
Next Tuesday it’s videoscopy day. I looked it up. It’s a tiny camera used to look at your vocal cords to check for swelling, irritation and acid reflux and takes three minutes. It also checks for “misuse.” Question: How do you misuse your vocal cords?
I looked that up too. I’m just not sure this stuff isn’t made up. Screaming and shouting, talking too softly or too loudly, not using your diaphragm correctly and talking too much is considered misuse.
“Well, your honor I’m guilty on all counts except speaking too softly.” But how much is too much screaming and shouting for instance and I’m not an opera singer.
Here’s the point. I went in to have my ears cleaned. The doc did that, removing a couple of pounds of wax. Then there was this deluge of pills, nasal sprays,, ear drops and ointments, $47 worth which is not bad, and a half dozen office visits at $45 per. Now if he isn’t running up the insurance bill, I’m not a trained observer any more.
I can’t wait to hear the diagnosis. “Florida Man,” that’s what he calls me because I sign in with my professional name, “I’m afraid I have bad news. We’re going to have to schedule a noseectomy, an earectomy, a throat vacuuming and we need to have a further look at those essential tremors. They may have to be removed.”
That session is scheduled for next week. I think I better take my solicitor with me.
Baseball Season
Florida Man
3/14/2025
Copyright©️
It’s almost baseball’s opening day and Florida Man used to be very excited. I’m not anymore and I know why and I’m going to tell you guys.
On Wednesday my friend Tom and I went to a spring training game in Palm Beach. It was a beautiful cloudless day in South Florida. Temps in the 70s and low humidity. There may have been 2,000 people. Great little stadium, red dirt, green grass, white lines. The beer, the brats, the Cracker Jacks were excellent. By the way, a bag of Cracker Jack was $4.79. And you thought eggs were expensive.
A group of nameless, to me and anybody else except relatives and friends, young men representing the Houston Astros and the Washington Senators played nine innings. The score was Sens 9, Stros 3 but the score meant nothing. It’s a bunch of guys trying to become big leaguers. You have to feel for them. Fabulous opportunity and what could be better than wearing a big league uniform even if it only for a month. I envy them. I really envy them.
The reason I’m not excited about new seasons any more is related to the namelessness of the players. It’s not just because I’m an old complainer, which I guess I am, it’s because players change teams so often you can’t count on seeing the same team two years in a row. And players come and go pretty fast. The average career is about five years but there are obviously exceptions. There are guys who play 15 years or longer.
Another negative for me is the fact that mediocre players make millions. If you know baseball, you know that a .250 batting average is pretty good these days. In my time (I hate the phrase but anyway) the good players hit in the low to mid 300s. The average guys were around .275.
I’m going to reminisce here The time machine is set on 1950.
I was a dedicated baseball fan and player In those days there were fewer teams so it was easier but I memorized the standings in the newspaper every day and I could tell you most of the scores from the day and night before. Of course nobody asked. We lived in Kansas City, where there was a Yankee farm team at the time, and my grandfather, Moe, took me to games on Sundays. We saw all the future Yankee stars of the era on their way up to the majors.
A word about Moe. He was badly injured in a car accident and had extreme pain in his legs. He used to soak his thighs with hot wash clothes in the evening. But he still got it together enough for us to take the streetcar to the games because I wanted to go.
I’m afraid I never thanked him enough for that. I know I didn’t. I’m not going to make any excuses because there aren’t any.
But I also played ball with friends from dawn to dusk every day in the summer and thought I had a future in the game. My Dad set me straight the summer of my 17th birthday.
I’m going to drag you further into my baseball past. I wrote this a while back during a period of extreme nostalgia about baseball. It’s supposed to be poetry.
In my mind a picture,
My dad, in his suit and tie
slips off his coat and lays
it on the grass near the car
he has just parked in our driveway.
I’m 12 years old.
I’ve been waiting for him to come
home and play catch.
I thought I was a pitcher. I had all
the moves, and i could throw okay
but didn’t have the size to be a
real player. I didn’t know that.
He did, but played along anyway.
I handed him a catcher’s
mitt, a gift from a friend of his, and
he squatted in front of the garage door
behind a plate I outlined with white chalk on the concrete.
I long ago had nailed wood strips across
the garage windows because I wasn’t always accurate.
My first throw was right over. He gave a thumbs up.
My second was right over too.
The third hit the concrete inches in front of him
and smacked him in the ankle.
He winced.
I know it hurt. It was my best fast ball.
Maybe 40 mph, but off the ankle over his
wing tips. He shook it off.
He always did and got ready for the next one.
So my baseball fanaticism is deeply rooted but I don’t think I’ll ever get that old feeling back. The thrill of seeing the same players on the same teams every year. Maybe other older fans don’t feel that way but I bet some do.
Voodoo Medicine
Florida Man
3/13/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man had my second encounter with voodoo medicine on Tuesday and it was in Fort Lauderdale not Louisiana, Cuba or the Caribbean.
No Rastas were involved. There were no chicken bones being read like tea leaves. No ganja being smoked. Not really any dark magic. Just strange procedures that I’m calling voodoo, not deprecating the religion, just the medicalness of the procedures.
First I’ll tell you about my introduction to voodoo medical practices. It took place at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, a well-known hot-bed of occult medicine.
I was there because I was having tremors in my left hand and I wanted to see if it was the beginnings of Parkinson’s. Now, Mayo is a giant and impressive operation known for its development of advanced medical treatments. People from all over the world go there. They have apartments for the rich and famous. They are not known for any voodoo.
So their main test for Parkinson’s involved sticking tiny pins in my arms and reading the squiggles they made on a computer screen when activated by a battery. Before computers I don’t know how they did the test. It didn’t hurt but I could see the screen and it looked like electrical interference on television. Nothing to see here. Keep moving. A tech watched and apparently could read the results. The verdict: harmless essential tremors. I’m still trying to figure out why they are essential. I don’t see any real use for them.
Back to Tuesday in the office of an ENT testing for problems with my ears and my balance. I stood on a pillow, marched in place with my eyes closed. Touched my fingers to my nose. Wore a mask and followed red dots with my eyes. Had electrodes taped to my forehead and some other things I can’t remember. How these techniques were developed is a mystery to me. For example, who discovered that standing a pillow was a good test for balance. I want some answers on that.
To me it qualified as voodoo and I’ve had semi-extensive experience.
One day years ago, I was walking up the stairs in the Fort Lauderdale court house to cover the murder trial of a Cuban man and found the family of the accused hovering over a pile of chicken bones on one of the landings. Later that day, the accused was found not guilty. So keep your chicken bones just in case.
Further, I worked with a reporter in Miami who was a practitioner. She seemed like a normal person although some of her stories had a strange ring and chupacabras were often mentioned. You know like the legendary Sasquatch or Locn Ness monster only more like vampires. For those of you who don't always know when I’m kidding, I’m kidding about the chupacabras but not the Loch Ness monster.
Anyway, voodoo has long been misunderstood as a sinister practice involving curses and zombies but it’s a faith-based religion focusing on community, healing and spiritual connection. And there is ganja. It’s a part of the identity of millions of people in the U.S., Africa and Haiti. (Thanks to ChatGPT.)
Stereotypes
Florida Man
3/12/2025
Copyright©️
Whether we admit it or not, stereotypes are deeply ingrained in us. We’ve got em’.
This became clear to Florida Man once again yesterday when I was walking into the ear doc’s office in Fort Lauderdale. I saw a Black couple walking toward the door. I waited and held the door because the man was kind of stopped and the woman wasn’t moving very well either. Not that I’m moving like a well-oiled machine.
I really wasn’t even thinking about it, just holding the door, but I was surprised when he thanked me in what I thought was a cultured voice, no southern undertones, no real accent at all. From a distance I thought the couple looked rather shabbily dressed. It was a cool morning for Florida and they both had on light weight jackets.
Inside I sat in a chair next to him and as a trained observer (reporters like to call themselves trained observes) I saw that he had on some good looking light brown canvas shoes, nice ribbed black socks, new or freshly pressed blue jeans, a Columbia jacket and a ESPN baseball cap. I couldn’t see anything but the woman’s shoes and even I knew they were Chanel.
In contrast, I was wearing Sketchers with a hole in the toe of the right shoe, kinda’ old blue jeans, a long sleeve shirt and my Elderly Brothers hat. They must have thought I was a poor bubba on Medicaid.
Now, I didn’t grow up around minorities except an occasional maid and didn't go to school with any recognizable minorities until college. And then there were very few Black kids and I don’t remember any Asians or Latinos. In my summer jobs I worked with white people.
When it came up, my dad who hired Blacks to work in the back and the basement of the jewelry store he managed often used the word “schvartze.” I think it was common term among Jews who grew up in the 30s and common until the 60s. I don’t think he used it with prejudice but it certainly wasn’t a good reference.
My first real exposure to Blacks and other minorities was in the army when I was 19-years-old. I don’t remember being shocked or mad that Black sergeants were telling me to peel potatoes but it was a new experience.
After that my life was filled with minorities. I ran a foundation in New York that made grants to mostly Black groups in the south. At one point I ran a race relations project with a mostly black staff and we worked in the black areas of Cleveland.
Back to my point of ingrained stereotypes. From childhood our parents are role models. If they're bigots we’ll be bigots. If they aren’t we have a chance to be good people.
Of course, this is a complex world and stereotypes can be formed at any time in life. Societal norms, culture, media and personal exposure to others unlike us form our opinions. Sometimes a particular incident can effect us positively or negatively and they can last a long time.
I worked with a reporter in Florida who had never met a Jew until he went to college. Until then he thought Jews had tails. He learned differently in the dorm shower room. Now where did he get that idea?
I didn’t mean this to be lesson in sociology because, in like so many other things I’m not an expert, but I learned a good lesson yesterday. Despite all my life experiences I’m still storing stereotypes somewhere in my brain. I’m afraid they can’t be unlearned but I do think I’ve mitigated them.
Cattle Are Interesting
Florida Man
3/11/2025
Copyright©️
Today Florida Man is off on a relaxing jag, wondering where those cows I was talking about a while back came from and what their purpose is besides baloney and hamburger.
The internet is full of cow dope. First, a lot are foreign cattle breeds imported for their unique genetic traits, such as superior meat quality, disease resistance, or adaptability to certain climates. They contribute to the diversity of cattle farming, sort of the DEI representatives of the animal world.
Getting these breeds here is a complicated process. They have to meet health standards and be free of diseases like tuberculosis. Pretty much the same for people trying enter the country.
These foreigners come on special livestock boats and the more prized breeds are flown here. They go through customs where their passports and health certificates are checked. Then they’re sent to the farms and ranches that bought them.
Sounds like slavery but they’re just animals, amirite.
More and more this looks like a case for ICE. I say this in jest but who the hell knows what’s in the minds of the jack-booted thugs.
This is all first world stuff but if you drink milk and eat meat you’ll find this interesting. The details come from a variety of cattle breeding groups like the American Angus Association and the National Association of Animal Breeders.
If you are vegan or a vegetarian this info isn’t for you. I’ll see you tomorrow.
So, for those of us who are carnivores here are a few of the most popular breeds:
The Angus, originally imported from Scotland is prized for the high-quality, marbled, tender and flavorful beef it produces. A cow weighs about 1,000 pounds when full grown and stands five feet tall. I never knew they were taller than me. They produce about 500 pounds of steaks, chops, etc.
The Hereford is an English breed also known for quality beef. They are about the same size and weight as an Angus.
France sends the Charolais. Farmers like the breed because it grows fast, is big and yields a lot of lean beef. A cow can weigh up to 1,800 pounds. They are 7 feet 4 inches tall and can dunk a basketball.
One more example.
From Switzerland comes the Simmental, a breed that produces both beef and milk. They grow fast and are good for crossbreeding. The are about the same size as the Charolais but they traditionally haven’t been interested in playing basketball.
There is much more to say cow wise but it’s better to get on the road and see these guys in the fields for yourself. They are hearty eaters. If you happen to spot a cattle auction along the way be sure to stop. Go in and sit next a a buyer and ask questions. He/She will gladly point out which cow is good for T-bones and which for hotdogs. Or you can go to your grocery’s meat department and see them in a different form.
That’s all for today class. Don’t forget to bring your text books tomorrow. There may be a pop quiz.
Blog
Blog
Blog
Daylight Savings Time
Florida Man
3/10/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man woke up this morning at 7:00 and it was dark. I expected light. Saturday morning it was light at 7:00. What the hey.
What is this about daylight savings time? How does it save daylight? Isn’t morning light as good as evening light?
Here’s what I remember learning about DST when I was growing up during WWII. It was supposed to give farmers more time the fields to raise the wheat and corn for the bread and other stuff we got ration books to buy. We were supposed to be able to save electricity.
But farmers get up at 5:00 a.m. anyway. They feed the chickens and cattle and slop the hogs. After that they milk the cows, rev up the tractor and hit the fields.
Depending on the season they are planting or harvesting, maintaining their reapers and sowers, irrigating, fertilizing, spraying and watering. At noon they may take a quick break for some sushi and tiramisu and then back at it. Those hogs are always hungry and those chickens won’t stop laying eggs. Their day ends in the barn oiling things.
The day is something like reporting only not quite as hard.
A personal anecdote here.
We were driving through Iowa years ago and saw a guy in his big green John Deere harvesting corn. I pulled into a side road and was taking picture when he finished the row right in front of us and climbed out. I thought he was going to say don’t take any picture of me because I’m in the witness protection program but instead he asked us if we’d like a ride. Duh.
He helped us over a fence stile and into the cab of his throbbing machine. We rode through several trips up and down the field and he explained how the computer told him where his corn was growing best so next year he could plant in a different way. He even offered us the chance to drive his beast but we said no thanks. A great experience but that’s what can happen on back roads.
Back to daylight savings.
Turns out It was Ben Franklin’s idea. He had a few and this one has been around since 1784. The idea was to save candles but that begs the question of why didn’t they just turn off the lights.
Moving into the 20th century, it was used during WWI to save electricity and encourage to use the extra evening daylight to spend money. You couldn't spend money after dark in those days. The same for WWII. It’s been that way ever since.
I still don’t see the value of evening light as opposed to morning light. Light is light as Thomas Edison said right after he invented the light bulb, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, the microphone and wax paper. He also had 1,088 other patents.
Remember when your fifth grade teacher told you to use your time more wisely. Well, Edison worked 16 to 18 hours a day, weekends and holidays included, and couldn’t have cared less about daylight savings time.
Florida Man
3/9/2025
Copyright©️
A day without a hot blast of insanity from the scoundrels is like a day without a delivery from your favorite drug dealer. You can live without it, but it’s a stimulant that sets your fingers skipping across the keyboard.
This latest madness, like so many other things coming out of D.C., is a long list of words that will be expunged from all parts of a government run by ignorant people who think they can score points by numbing our senses.
Florida Man isn’t going to count them but there are hundreds and I’ll save you the time and the stomach roiling feeling of doing it yourself. In fact, it would be “hee hee” funny if it was a joke.
You can probably guess many of them but the list begins with “accessible” and ends with “women.” The harm in these words is obvious. “Accessible,” among other things, means easy to use or talk with. I wouldn’t want to be able to do those dangerous things because I might hear something interesting or important. And what can you say about “women” that isn’t going to hurt you. I mean, for example, “There are a lot of women in the world” and “The chef at the new restaurant is a woman.”
You can’t use “female” either so I guess you have to use “male” for everything because that isn’t on the prohibited list.
You have to wonder who put this putrid pile of shit together.
Here’s some more beauties: allyship (supporting a minority without being a member of it), assigned male or female at birth (huh?), clean energy, expression, men who have sex with men (I’m not kidding), trauma, commercial sex worker (How would that ever appear in a government document?), political, gender and unconscious bias (Is that a thing?).
These words are called “woke” initiatives. Again, is that a real thing. I haven’t even touched the surface of this obscenity, a word that isn’t on the list.
I’m going to try and write an intelligent sentence using the banned words. My sentence: "I just want to “advocate” freedom of speech and “expression” for all Americans including “prostitutes,” babies “assigned female at birth” and those that “belong” to “key groups” and “key populations” but be sure not to use a “pronoun” or fish in the “Gulf of Mexico.”
That wasn’t easy but here’s something that I’m sure many government employees will hear around the old empty water cooler in the old empty office. “Last night that “female” “prostitute” said she “advocated” “sex” and when I said I was “breastfed” and that I had a “gender” but I couldn’t say what it is because it’s been expunged, she said go expunge yourself. Now that’s not good form my “mental health.”
In conclusion: Climate crisis, culturally responsive, feminism and uterus.
Florida Man
3/8/2025
Copyright©️
I think these creeps and thieves do stuff just to stay in the news. Like making English the official language of the USofA. I thought it was Portuguese so I’m glad that got straightened out. They’re renaming military installations to bring back the Confederacy. It’s all diversion. Trying to keep us from looking at the destruction.
Tomorrow the felon will designate the directions North, South, East and West as Trump, Trump, Trump and Trump, so we won’t know which way we’re going, just like him.
Two things they are serious about is trying to isolate us and then kill us.
They only like to deal with murderers like Putin who throws people out high windows, Mohammed bin Salman who cuts up journalists with electric saws, the guy in Hungary, Orban, Osama bin Laden if he was still alive and RFKJr. who is very actively on a murder rampage.
Vaccines, as you know, will give you autism and kill you when you aren’t looking. I think I remember seeing statistics that showed that no one has ever gotten autism of gotten gay or died after taking a vaccine. Tell me why people are listening to the ideas of a crazy man who drove around with a dead bear in his trunk.
Never mind how many millions of lives have been saved by the development of preventive shots for measles, polio and covid.
Cancelling military aid to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia will result in military and civilian casualties, mostly in Ukraine and isolate us from Europe.
Eliminating USAID will cause the deaths of thousands, especially children, in shit-hole counties according to Sen. Bernie Sanders and the fired agency employees who were on the ground all over the world.
NOAA and FAA employees have been tossed out so we’ll be surprised by. the next hurricane, blizzard, fire, flood or meteor strike. And fasten your seatbelts because the air is going to be turbulent.
And heath in general, forget it. NIH and CDC are pretty much gone ending research on viruses and other diseases that kill people. We’ll have to go to Canada or Mexico for help that used to be at the neighborhood pharmacy. Can condoms, IUDs and birth control pills and aspirin be far behind.
We know that the convicted sexual predator is the most repulsive person in the world, but he is also a malignancy and there is not, nor will there be, any medical research to cure that.
Orwell Predicted It
Florida Man
3/7/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man has written before about the den of thieves fear of DEI. Now their frightened little minds are erasing history. They are more afraid of the word “gay” than they are of China. I don’t know if Orwell is excited or dismayed by what’s going on. I think he’d be mortified.
The drunk, sexist, bigot Hegseth who is in charge of the military has ordered the removal of everything that is a reminder of diversity in the ranks.
AP reports that the order includes as many as 100,000 images or bases that include the names of women or minorities. Some photos to be purged have the dreaded word "gay" including people whose first or last name is Gay and a picture of the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the Enola Gay.
The bomber is on display in the National Air and Space Museum. I suppose it will be destroyed. There is no end to the vindictiveness of this group of frightened chickens.
Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photo of Marines planting the American flag on Iwo Jima in February 1945 is no doubt in danger because one of six is a Native American and another is a Jew. I just checked and the Dept. of Def. has already taken down the web page recording the heroism of the Marines. Holy fucking shit.
There is also a statue of the Iwo Jima flag raising outside Arlington National Cemetery in D.C. that will have to be removed as well as the graves of other than white people buried there. What will families do with the remains? Will they be shipped to Guantanamo? If there are no families to claim the bodies will they be dumped into the Potomac?
There are a lot of questions. What about the 20,000 Civil War graves at Andersonville? Surely some of them are minorities. The Confederate cemeteries, of course, won’t be touched because they were all brave white men.
Could I be angrier? How? I’m enraged. There’s more of course.
Any celebrations or recognition of the military’s diversity including Black History Month. A third of the two million men and women in the service are minorities. Biographies of military leaders past and present and stories advocating for women, racial minority groups, and LGBTQ troops will be tossed in the trash.
It’s even personal. The cowards have fired the first Black officer to lead a branch of the military and a woman who led the navy. Doesn’t that scream discrimination?
The drunkard’s order says “Information that promotes programs, concepts, or materials about critical race theory, gender ideology, and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI related matters with respect to promotion and selection reform" are done with. Critical race theory and gender ideology are a bit hard to define and certainly beyond the grasp of the fevered brains of these ass-holes.
I’m at a loss to describe how incredibly ignorant and vicious this regieme is and will become if not stopped. If I was a minority in the military now I would rip off my uniform and walk out the door. They obviously don’t want me and they think they don’t need me. A huge blunder.
Social Security?
Florida Man
3/6/2025
Copyright©️
Are you worried about getting you next Social Security check? Florida Man is damn worried about next month and the next few years. I can make it without SS for a couple of years, maybe three, but Eric can’t do without his SSDI for even a month. He only makes about a thousand a month bagging groceries at Publix but his expenses, rent and supported living help are way more than that. SSDI makes up the difference.
He, of course, is far from alone. There are currently 9.2 million disabled workers, disabled widows and disabled adults receiving benefits according to SS stats. So, if those benefit checks aren’t sent every month people won’t have enough money to live. But what the hey, they’re only old people who don’t produce anything for the billionaires.
President Musk’s team of unqualifieds couldn’t care less. They don’t know what people actually do in the SS jobs they are cutting or any other government jobs, and they don’t care about people in general. So as many as 90 million people may not receive checks in the near future.
That’s a big number and the slugs can celebrate with bottles of Dom Perignon 2013 Brut.
It will be interesting to see the reaction of the Magas when they can’t buy steaks and whiskey for a few weeks, months or ever again. Oh, and don’t forget rent and mortgage payments to be made as well.
We can only hope that Musk and his assistant reap what they have sown. We’ll know when repub reps start to receive death threats, not that I’m advocating that, but the Magas haven’t been reluctant to threaten Dems for much less serious offenses.
That’s the only answer I see to ending this willful destruction of the safety net that has been so carefully maintained since FDR signed the SS Act in August 1935, ten days before I was born. The first payments began on a regular basis in January 1940. So, this is a pretty damn successful, long running program.
Before SS, seniors had to scramble for survival. They may have been able to negotiate “old age” pensions based on financial need but mostly they had to rely on the kindness of others. Some probably had a few dollars in savings accounts or relatives and families with a few bucks or they moved into poor houses.
Poor houses, by the way, were not exactly the Hyatt. Conditions were grim so that only the most needy wanted in. Families were split up, residents had to wear uniforms and food was prison quality.
None of us can remember any of this, of course, and I don’t recall every reading about it. My parents were luckier. They were in their 30s when SS began so they could have been among the early recipients. I don’t remember them ever talking about getting SS though they may have. But what did we know? We never asked the right questions about anything because we were so damned smart.
That’s a topic for another Florida Man. I have great regrets about not asking my folks about their lives, their dreams and their ultimate realities. My Elderly Brother Larry and I have discussed this and though he is younger and smarter than me he doesn’t remember asking for any details about Eddie and Dolly Friedberg’s lives either. What an incredible loss for us and probably for them as well.
Fired
Florida Man
3/5/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man keeps thinking about the federal workers who are sitting in their cubicles just doing the jobs they’ve been doing for 15 years when a twerp walks up, pulls the plug on their computer and tells them to pack up and get out.
I don’t know if that’s the way it happens, since the cutthroats are all cowards so it’s probably done by email, but the result is the same. You are stunned like you’ve been hit on the head with a hammer. No warning, no sorry Jose or Gladys.
It’s like the mafia only the mafia enforcers give you a chance. “Nice little restaurant you’ve got her Pierre, it’d be a shame if something happened to it, like a kitchen fire. We can insure you for $500 a week.”
I have had a dozen jobs at least and I haven’t been fired from any of the them but I’ve come close and I can tell you that the threat raises your anxiety level to Defcon one. My problem in those days was that I was a smart ass who knew more about their business than they did. I learned better but now I’m a smart ass again.
The problem with president Musk’s method is you don’t get a chance to try and improve your performance because it’s not your performance that’s getting you fired. It’s the superciliousness (I have to look it up every time) of the Musk goon squads who don’t even know what your work is and don’t care. The goons clearly have the empathy of a shark but not the brains and how they got that way I don’t know.
Who are the axe wielders? Mostly Musk employees at other jobs and the felon's picks who I’m sure he’s never met.
Examples from the NYT:
Scott Langmack worked in real estate technology, whatever that is.
Adam Ramada has a background in financial startups.
Alexandra Beynon worked at a company that prescribes ketamine therapy.
Gavin Kliger who has no previous experience at anything.
Stephanie Holmes, a consultant who focused on fighting corporate diversity.
Enough. They all have one ugly face.
I like to think if one of these mugs confronted me, I’d tell them to fuck off, If’m busy. In fact I know I would. I’d get escorted out by security people, who better watch out for their jobs too, but I’d feel better about things.
So, what are the next steps for the unemployed? I have no idea where they go for help. I’m sure it won’t come from the government agency that works on job placement because its been closed and their workers are looking for work.
Health and Aging
Florida Man
3/4/2025
Copyright©️
Florida Man doesn’t read many blogs, but one I do read is by a smart guy named Kevin Drum. He’s good at statistics but also gets deeply into my kind of politics. A plug here: I also read a blog by Tom Swick, a friend and colleague who was travel editor at the Sun-Sentinel. Tune in. You’ll like it.
Anyway, Drum, who was diagnosed in 2014 with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow that’s currently incurable, gives a regular health update that’s worth reading.
He’s getting all kinds of experimental treatments and spends a lot of time in hospitals but keeps writing. Credit to him.
So, today I’m deviating from the horrific things that the assistant president is doing to talk about health and aging issues.
I have spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spaces between the bones that puts pressure on the spinal cord in the neck and back. It’s very common problem with aging and there are no symptoms until it gets painful and you have tingling or weakness in you hands, arms and legs. It can be very painful.
Fortunately, I have no pain but my lower legs feel like lead and I can’t walk more than a hundred yards without stopping. What’s depressing to me is that I was a decent athlete and ran marathons and was jogging and walking wherever until two years ago.
In the last eight months I’ve gotten steroid shots in my lower back and they help a lot but not enough to get me moving very well. I got two more shots yesterday and they aren’t supposed to kick in for 5 to 7 days but, unless it’s mental, I already feel better.
I don’t know if it’s the shots, the local anasthestic or the fact that I went to sleep about eleven last night but I woke up at 4:30 this morning and “feel like ox” or some other beast of burden. But I don’t want to be a camel.
Speaking of mental, I’m sure my older friends and probably some of the younger ones have some trouble with short term memory.
For example, I think of something really important, like the plot and title of the next great American novel, and if I don’t write it down immediately it’s gone. I’ve lost many best-sellers that way. The same with a cure for Alzheimers. Had it, but it’s gone.
And I’m having real trouble remembering names, not those of people I’ve known forever but names of people like, what’s his name. I had it and lost it. Oh, it’s Ethelred the Unready. Whew.
The method I use to remember names is toI run though the alphabet to find them and sometimes it works. I remembered Chet Huntley when I got to H the other day. If you try it, don’t worry about names that begin with q, u, x, y, or z because you don’t know anyone named Quixote, Ulf, Xena, Yerba or Zelensky. Just keep running through and it may come to you.
Other strange older stuff. My fridge is right next to the trash bin. I open the fridge door with trash in my hand. I open the trash bin with a filet mignon I’m planning on having for dinner. I still haven’t put my car keys or billfold in the freezer.
And you know where stuff is, like in what drawer you put the potato masher but it’s not there because it’s in the other drawer.
You ever look for your car keys and there on your finger? Oh, yeah, happens a lot. Leave you cell in the car. Of course.
I’m sure you’ve walked into the bathroom or any other room and wondered what the hell am I doing here.
There’s a lot of other stuff but I’ve forgotten what it is.
But here’s a fun fact I learned from the pain doc who shoots me up and by the way is very good. She’s young and bright and Cuban. I hope she’s a citizen.
Anyway, she flicked the tip of the middle finger on my right hand. If the pointy finger or thumb moves when the finger is flicked if can be a sign of spinal cord compression. It’s called the Hoffman test but how Hoffman figured it out is a mystery to me. So one day he flicked and his leg went numb. What a brilliant connection.
It turns out that, duh, aging is a strange process. One day you feel fine and the next you wonder what the hell happened over night. I haven’t accepted it yet, but I’m trying to ignore every little tic and tock and move on.
Don’t forget to tune into the Elderly Brothers on You Tube. The address is: https://www.youtube.com/@ElderlyBrothers-US
Things Are Getting Worse
Florida Man
3/3/2025
Copyright©️
When you’re driving around with the windows down and the fresh air seems especially fresh, all seems right with our world unless, of course, you’re a government worker who’s been fired arbitrarily.
Still, people aren’t casually shooting each other, tires aren’t smouldering in the intersections, tanks and soldiers with fixed bayonets aren’t patrolling the streets. Not yet.
But like a flaming driverless semi, this country is heading down a one-way road to fascism at full throttle. The anger, resentment and depravity of the Muskrat and his assistant are enough to make you want to hop on that semi as it crashes into democracy. They have zero humanity. They just want big numbers. And our elected reps are so afraid of something all they do is watch goggle-eyed and crawl under their desks.
I didn’t see the so-called meeting with Zelensky but I’ve read enough about it to realize it was much worse than I thought. It was an ambush intended to humiliate the Ukrainian president but it was a total humiliation of the U.S., of all of us. He’s the leader of a democracy and we are fakes.
Where does a draft-dodger, a rich boy with invisible bone spurs, get off pointing accusing fingers at a man who has witnessed tens of thousands of his fellow citizens, soldiers and civilizations, killed by the murderous Russian tyrant of whom the felon is so envious.
Ukrainians in the U.S. should be angry enough to break down the doors of congress like the Jan. 6 insurrectionists did so violently four years ago In support of their beloved lying, demented ignoramus.
Well you can rest easy about one thing. English is now our official language. How progressive can you get? That kind of mush is tossed out there for the drooling cult. Talk American so we can understand you, dammit.
But while the cheap bait is being thrown out there reporters are being barred from media events and news organizations are being chosen to echo the administration’s drivel.
President Elon is hot on free speech but it’s his speech he’s extolling. He or somebody near him said the are, “Capitalizing on the censorial strains of the left.” I don’t think this expression is in the official language of the U.S.
We’re looking into the maw of oppression of expression.