Posts from — November 2014

Echidne posted that a teacher resigned when her school wanted her to take a 21-day leave and produce a note from her doctor because she had been on a medical mission trip to Kenya. The distance from where the Ebola outbreak is and Kenya is about the same as LA to NYC, or Dublin to Moscow.

Connecticut is the current leading contender for “Dumbest Reaction by State Officials to Ebola” as they quarantine people for just about any connection to East Africa or an Ebola patient.

While looking at stories about Connecticut I ran into a lot of negative comments about Kaci Hickox from people upset that she actively opposed being quarantined. The general reasons for these people being upset seemed to be: she’s female; she’s educated; and she’s ‘uppity’. These people felt she should have just done what the males wanted her to do and ignored her direct knowledge of dealing with Ebola because ‘Father knows best’ and imply she was a direct threat to their personal health. The anti-intellectual misogyny was something to behold.

It took me less than 5 minutes at a little after 2PM CST as I was the only one in the place.

From the signs just outside the exclusion zone I see that Amendment 1 is supposed to be ‘a land grab’. I’m not sure how dedicated funding to a trust to buy land translates into a ‘land grab’, but some people seem to believe it.

Amendment 2 is supposed to support drug abuse. How replacing Oxycotin and other addictive narcotic pain killers with marijuana supports drug abuse is beyond me, but some people believe it enough to have signs printed.

So far my vote has counted, as I can see them in the counts in Okaloosa County.

The polls are open in West Florida from 7AM to 7PM CST, so if you haven’t already voted by absentee ballot or during early voting, make the effort to get to polls tomorrow.

Let’s see if we can have an election that actually reflects ‘the will of the people’ rather than the will of those people who bother to vote.

I’m voting NO on Amendment 3, because it is another political power grab to give power to lame duck governors.

I’m voting YES on Amendment 1 to help preserve some of what people love about Florida before it is all paved over or covered with over-priced McMansions on small lots.

I’m voting YES on Amendment 2 because it doesn’t legalize marijuana, it makes it a prescription drug which has fewer side effects than the drugs now prescribed to treat specific symptoms of a limited range of medical conditions. Medical research says it works, so it should be available.

I’m voting against the retention of any of the current judges on the First Circuit Court of Appeals because of the outrageously expensive palace they had built for their new offices and court house. That was not ‘judicial’ use of public money.

Interstate 10 was the dividing line between above and below freezing this morning. In a week we have gone from watching the heat index to the wind chill. I’m wearing wool socks and long johns rather than no socks and briefs after spending time locating winter clothes.

The temperature is going back up for the rest of the week which makes this time of year a real pain. You don’t know which pile to dress from until you look at the late night weather report.

Still, it is better than being in Cabo San Lucas on Baja Sur and watching Hurricane Vance out in the Pacific. Cabo already got nailed by Odile in mid-September and many of the structures were severely weakened. If the storm doesn’t take the forecast turn to the West midweek, Cabo may take another hit.

Daylight Savings Time ends in the US Sunday morning, November 2^nd at 2AM. It becomes 1AM and you get an extra hour of sleep, unless you work the “graveyard shift”.

Most new devices make the change automatically, although many, like my clock radio, change under the old system and have to be ignored for a couple of weeks.

“Fall back – Spring ahead”