Image via Wikipedia

Florida Governor Rick Scott cut the ribbon at the new eyeglass store in Town & Country Mall this morning. It’s nearby, and I’ve never seen the whole political entourage/ribbon cutting so I drove on over there 45 minutes before the show…

There were two black SUVs and some mall security golf carts blocking off the area in front of the America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglass store. Three uniformed (off duty?) Sweetwater Police and half-a-dozen men in suits were standing outside, one of ‘em on crutches. A team of janitors were detailing the area. I got a cup of coffee and watched as a TV cameraman arrived and set up his camera, men in suits talked animatedly and janitors cleaned. Shoppers walked by, talking on their cell phone and seemingly unconcerned about why cops and black SUVs had blocked off the parking lot.

A still photographer and two more TV cameras arrived. Another police car arrived and a cop & K9 team got out. Soon, cell phones rang, people stood up a little taller and inched out to the edge of the sidewalk. Across the parking lot I saw a pair of black Chevy Suburbans approaching. The gubernatorial caravan had arrived.

Scott’s SUV pulled up, he got out, walked right by me and began shaking hands. Bruce Steffey, COO of National Vision, is as tall as Scott and began making introductions right there on the sidewalk in front of the store. Scott’s media team showed up too.

After a few moments, Steffey invited everyone inside the store where he began explaining the eyeglass industry business model to Gov. Scott. So I’m listening to Steffey explain that the $69 price for a pair has not gone up for ten years, and Steffey’s team operates eyeglass centers in 250 WalMarts across the country… That’s when things got interesting.

I “felt” a pair of eyes on me. Sure enough, one of the uniformed cops is glaring at me from 4 feet away, behind his tinted glasses. As Steffey and Scott begin to walk around the store one of the National Vision VPs introduces himself to me and requests we walk outside. My mother raised me to be a gracious guest, so I follow the gentleman out of his store. He wants to know what I am doing there and I explain that I’m just curious, never seen the Governor do a ribbon cutting.

Meanwhile, the two uniformed officers walk out of the store and plant themselves between me and the door. They don’t take their eyes off me. I explain to the VP that I’m just watching and certainly not planning any anti-eyewear protest or anything. Honest. Scott’s driver helpfully suggests I stay “back behind that line.”

So Scott comes out, cuts the ceremonial ribbon and poses for photographs. After the photos, there’s a scrum of TV cameras and Scott recites his job numbers. Things are wrapping up. Meanwhile, I’m standing at the edge of the sidewalk with 6′ tall cops on either side of me. One of the cops asks what I have in my pocket and I show him my cell phone.

Scott starts shaking hands, working his way around the crowd. As he gets over to where I stand, he shakes hands with the two cops towering over me and turns to his waiting vehicle. Then he turns back, reaches between the cops, shakes my hand, says “I’m Rick,” and he’s gone, headed to the Latin Builder’s Association. As soon as Scott’s SUV is rolling, the cops forget all about me and head over to La Caretta for lunch.

King John signs the Magna Carta in 1215 Image via Wikipedia

Three freshman New Hampshire representatives have introduced legislation entitled “AN ACT requiring a reference to the Magna Carta on certain legislation.” The bill would require:

All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived.

First, as I recall from junior high, the Magna Carta is English law. England being an entirely different country. Second, the Magna Carta came as a result of the 99% occupying London and demanding concessions from King John. Finally, being 796 years old, the Magna Carta is full of wacky outdated ideas like this: “No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon the appeal of a woman, for the death of any other than her husband.”

New Hampshire HB 1580 will be remembered as another example in the “why we shouldn’t elect jackasses” saga.

Female burmese python on nest

Burmese python hatchlings can withstand exposure to salt water long enough to potentially expand their range through ocean and estuarine environments, according to research in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.

This recent study, based on lab experiments conducted by researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, shows that pythons may be able to survive in marine and estuarine environments such as bays, inlets and open seas. The results raise concerns that the invasive constrictor may invade nearby islands, such as the Florida Keys, said Kristen Hart, a USGS research ecologist and lead author of the study.

“Because reptiles, in general, have poor salinity tolerance, it was hoped that salt water would naturally hinder pythons’ ability to expand their range beyond the Everglades,” Hart said.” Unfortunately, our results suggest salt water alone cannot act as a reliable barrier to the Everglades python population.”

In the lab, researchers tested how long hatchling pythons could survive with only salt water to drink. They found that, when given access only to water with salinity levels equivalent to full marine water, hatchling pythons straight out of their eggs lived about a month. At salinity levels comparable with estuaries, the hatchlings survived about five months.

“The fact that this study has ruled out one of the most hoped-for forms of physical barriers, salt water, as preventing the spread of invasive pythons in Florida puts even more onus on human action to prevent the spread of these damaging reptiles,” explained USGS director Marcia McNutt. “This study demonstrates the distinct possibility that pythons could spread to new suitable habitats one estuary at a time.”

Image via Wikipedia

There hasn’t been a new oil refinery built in the US for more than 35 years. The refineries are approaching the end of their service life and are running at near capacity. This, we’re told, is what’s keeping gas prices high.

So why do we want to build a pipeline, at a cost greater than that of a new refinery, to bring more raw material into an already maxed-out system?

It’s not because we are going to increase our energy independence… and it’s not to drive down the price at the pump. No, it looks like the US is going to become a net exporter of petroleum products by the end of this year.

Florida State University is launching an ambitious research initiative focused on the rising tide of ecological, economic and cultural problems facing the waters surrounding Florida. Reducing the lack of relevant, strategic research is the mission of Florida State’s new Inter-American Seas Research Consortium (ISRC). The mission is critical because intensifying usage of the waters in the economically and geopolitically vital region –– formed by the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea and southeast U.S. Continental Shelf –– is both enabling and threatening coastal development, fisheries, hydrocarbon extraction, transportation opportunities and tourism.

http://cdn.thinkcreative.com/players/IzK9aQDy-vxqzr7dM.swf

“When Cuba proposes offshore oil drilling, when Central American countries license Asian trawlers to operate off their Caribbean waters, when oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident spreads to Florida’s shores, and when tourism promoters in Key West publicize the history of its original settlers who, over the course of 50 years, migrated from the Carolinas to the Bahamas to the Florida Keys, we are reminded,” said FSU geography Professor Phil Steinberg, “that Florida’s coastal frontier is not a space that divides.”

Trail cam Florida panther from Field & Stream contest

GOOD POINT: John A. says: “Last year a hunter killed a panther in Albany, Georgia and not too long ago there was a roadkilll on I 95 near Saint Augustine less than 50 miles from Ordway Preserve.”

UPDATE: Monday 11/14/11 10:25 AM. The Ordway-Swisher Biological Station says they are not aware of any Florida panther photos taken on reserve lands.

The Fall 2011 Field & Stream trail cam contest includes this gem.Claims to have been taken in North Florida’s Ordway Preserve. So, I have an email in to Ordway preserve to see if this was really take up there. The Ordway preserve is located halfway between Gainesville and Palatka. That would be well north and east of where I though the Florida panther population is located. More as I learn it…

According to the Gainesville Sun,

Gov. Rick Scott has sent a detailed list of questions to state university officials, asking for information on issues related to whether graduates are prepared for the job market.

This must be some kind of cruel joke… There is no job market! And for those with a job, there is no paycheck. Half of all employed Americans made less than $26,364 last year. Meanwhile, the number of people making more than $1,000,000 is up 20% over 2009… So we are seeing the middle class evaporate.

The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system, should get together with the state university presidents and the student body presidents. They should work together to form a unified response to Gov. Scott. Here’s my rough draft:

Dear Gov. Scott,

Yes. Florida’s university graduates are ready for the job market. But is the job market ready for them?

Please let us worry about the homework, the classes, the testing. We’ll take care of finding and recruiting top-quality educators from all over the world. We’ll take care of determining compensation for the best and how to help all the rest make constant improvements. Quite honestly, the State of Florida University system does not need an educational back-seat-driver in Tallahassee.

We urge you to focus your attention on recruiting employers and “job creators” to Florida. We need as many as you can produce, as fast as you can produce ‘em. This was your campaign promise, after all…

So we urge you to “Get To Work” and bring those employers to Florida. Our Florida college grads will exceed their expectations.

Sincerely,

9 + 6 = 15.

Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan means all Floridians will be paying at least 15% sales tax. Cain’s 9% sales tax does not replace Florida’s 6% sales tax, it’s in addition to it. Florida allows local municipalities to charge up to an additional 1.5% sales tax for local initiatives, so here in Miami-Dade county 9+7.5=16.5

Right now, your food and medicine, lottery tickets and vitamins, are exempt from Florida sales tax. Your medical, dental, engineering, legal, banking, insurance, securities and construction services are not subject to Florida’s sales tax. Do you believe Herman Cain will continue to allow your Viagra a tax exemption?

Most Americans have slogged through years of lowered standards, lowered expectations and higher prices. When politics and the economy can get twenty-somethings away from the video games long enough to Occupy Wall Street for a month, shit is bad.

Bad and complicated. Congress, the Senate and the White House seem to be searching for a silver bullet to make everything all better again. Ain’t gonna happen. Our economy is too complicated, and too intertwined with the Yuan and the Euro… So, this outline of A Way Forward looks just complicated enough to me that it may have a chance of actually working.

Anybody who suggests evaluating what worked in the 1930s to drag our country out of depression may just be on the right track.

There are too many banks on Wall Street… Gramm-Leach deregulated banking, turning a stable business into a free-for-all.

Before deregulation, banks were safe and boring, for depositors and investors alike. As an investor, you were not expecting windfall returns, but you could sleep pretty soundly. As a depositor, you were not worried that the FDIC would swoop into town Friday afternoon and close the place down. It just didn’t happen.

But the banking industry, led by the biggest banks, grew greedy. They wanted to play on the same playground as the investment banks. They wanted the big black limousines, the champagne, the cover of Forbes… They had stars in their eyes.  So they lobbied for, and received, deregulation.

The bankers, figuring they are just a bit smarter than, well, everyone else, thought they could generate above average returns without sacrificing safety. Yeah, right… That only happens in one place.

Welcome to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.–Garrison Keillor

So the bankers get their deregulation and immediately put their capital and above-average intelligence to work. Now take a look at this timeline. There is slow and steady growth until 2000, a month after Gramm-Leach is enacted. The next thing that happens is the dot-com bubble. Heckuva job, guys!

The US economy has been roughly flat since Gramm-Leach. Deregulating banks has done nothing for the average American. Deregulation has eliminated the past ten years of growth in that graph; it has increased stock market instability, and lined the pockets of the bankers. Some people want a safe, boring investment option. The bankers even took that option off the table.

It’s past time for America to take the banks off Wall Street. They’ve proven they can not regulate themselves, so we the people must do it for them. There is far too much at stake.